diff --git a/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/include/lustre/lustre_user.h b/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/include/lustre/lustre_user.h
index a69b27a78042..4c1b3cba77ba 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/include/lustre/lustre_user.h
+++ b/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/include/lustre/lustre_user.h
@@ -997,12 +997,25 @@ static inline void *hur_data(struct hsm_user_request *hur)
 	return &(hur->hur_user_item[hur->hur_request.hr_itemcount]);
 }
 
-/** Compute the current length of the provided hsm_user_request. */
-static inline int hur_len(struct hsm_user_request *hur)
+/**
+ * Compute the current length of the provided hsm_user_request.  This returns -1
+ * instead of an errno because ssize_t is defined to be only [ -1, SSIZE_MAX ]
+ *
+ * return -1 on bounds check error.
+ */
+static inline ssize_t hur_len(struct hsm_user_request *hur)
 {
-	return offsetof(struct hsm_user_request,
-			hur_user_item[hur->hur_request.hr_itemcount]) +
-		hur->hur_request.hr_data_len;
+	__u64	size;
+
+	/* can't overflow a __u64 since hr_itemcount is only __u32 */
+	size = offsetof(struct hsm_user_request, hur_user_item[0]) +
+		(__u64)hur->hur_request.hr_itemcount *
+		sizeof(hur->hur_user_item[0]) + hur->hur_request.hr_data_len;
+
+	if (size != (ssize_t)size)
+		return -1;
+
+	return size;
 }
 
 /****** HSM RPCs to copytool *****/
diff --git a/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/llite/dir.c b/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/llite/dir.c
index efa2faf080d7..de5892c5e7d6 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/llite/dir.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/llite/dir.c
@@ -1787,7 +1787,7 @@ out_quotactl:
 		return ll_fid2path(inode, (void *)arg);
 	case LL_IOC_HSM_REQUEST: {
 		struct hsm_user_request	*hur;
-		int			 totalsize;
+		ssize_t			 totalsize;
 
 		OBD_ALLOC_PTR(hur);
 		if (hur == NULL)
@@ -1802,6 +1802,8 @@ out_quotactl:
 		/* Compute the whole struct size */
 		totalsize = hur_len(hur);
 		OBD_FREE_PTR(hur);
+		if (totalsize < 0)
+			return -E2BIG;
 
 		/* Final size will be more than double totalsize */
 		if (totalsize >= MDS_MAXREQSIZE / 3)