diff --git a/flight/flight-core/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/flight/ArrowMessage.java b/flight/flight-core/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/flight/ArrowMessage.java
index ab4eab3048..9aae8e78e8 100644
--- a/flight/flight-core/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/flight/ArrowMessage.java
+++ b/flight/flight-core/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/flight/ArrowMessage.java
@@ -296,6 +296,7 @@ private static ArrowMessage frame(BufferAllocator allocator, final InputStream s
           case DESCRIPTOR_TAG:
             {
               int size = readRawVarint32(stream);
+              checkFieldLength(size, stream);
               byte[] bytes = new byte[size];
               ByteStreams.readFully(stream, bytes);
               descriptor = FlightDescriptor.parseFrom(bytes);
@@ -304,6 +305,7 @@ private static ArrowMessage frame(BufferAllocator allocator, final InputStream s
           case HEADER_TAG:
             {
               int size = readRawVarint32(stream);
+              checkFieldLength(size, stream);
               byte[] bytes = new byte[size];
               ByteStreams.readFully(stream, bytes);
               header = MessageMetadataResult.create(ByteBuffer.wrap(bytes), size);
@@ -312,6 +314,7 @@ private static ArrowMessage frame(BufferAllocator allocator, final InputStream s
           case APP_METADATA_TAG:
             {
               int size = readRawVarint32(stream);
+              checkFieldLength(size, stream);
               appMetadata = allocator.buffer(size);
               GetReadableBuffer.readIntoBuffer(stream, appMetadata, size, ENABLE_ZERO_COPY_READ);
               break;
@@ -323,6 +326,7 @@ private static ArrowMessage frame(BufferAllocator allocator, final InputStream s
               body = null;
             }
             int size = readRawVarint32(stream);
+            checkFieldLength(size, stream);
             body = allocator.buffer(size);
             GetReadableBuffer.readIntoBuffer(stream, body, size, ENABLE_ZERO_COPY_READ);
             break;
@@ -377,6 +381,24 @@ private static int readRawVarint32(int firstByte, InputStream is) throws IOExcep
     return CodedInputStream.readRawVarint32(firstByte, is);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Reject a field whose declared length is negative or larger than the bytes left in the message.
+   *
+   * <p>The length prefix is read straight off the wire, and a field can never be longer than the
+   * bytes still buffered for the message. Without this check an oversized value drives an unbounded
+   * allocation before any content is read; the {@code new byte[size]} paths above do so on the JVM
+   * heap, bypassing the {@link BufferAllocator} limit entirely.
+   */
+  private static void checkFieldLength(int size, InputStream stream) throws IOException {
+    final int remaining = stream.available();
+    if (size < 0 || size > remaining) {
+      throw new IOException(
+          String.format(
+              "Malformed FlightData frame: field length %d exceeds %d bytes remaining in the message",
+              size, remaining));
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Convert the ArrowMessage to an InputStream.
    *
diff --git a/flight/flight-core/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/flight/TestArrowMessage.java b/flight/flight-core/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/flight/TestArrowMessage.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..151f7eefa2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flight/flight-core/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/flight/TestArrowMessage.java
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.arrow.flight;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;
+
+import com.google.protobuf.WireFormat;
+import io.grpc.MethodDescriptor;
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import org.apache.arrow.flight.impl.Flight.FlightData;
+import org.apache.arrow.memory.BufferAllocator;
+import org.apache.arrow.memory.RootAllocator;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterEach;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+public class TestArrowMessage {
+
+  private static final int HEADER_TAG =
+      (FlightData.DATA_HEADER_FIELD_NUMBER << 3) | WireFormat.WIRETYPE_LENGTH_DELIMITED;
+  private static final int APP_METADATA_TAG =
+      (FlightData.APP_METADATA_FIELD_NUMBER << 3) | WireFormat.WIRETYPE_LENGTH_DELIMITED;
+
+  private BufferAllocator allocator;
+
+  @BeforeEach
+  public void setUp() {
+    allocator = new RootAllocator(Long.MAX_VALUE);
+  }
+
+  @AfterEach
+  public void tearDown() {
+    allocator.close();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * A field whose declared length is far larger than the bytes actually present in the frame must
+   * be rejected before anything is allocated for it, rather than driving an allocation sized by the
+   * attacker-controlled length prefix.
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void frameRejectsOversizedFieldLength() {
+    final ByteArrayOutputStream frame = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+    writeRawVarint32(frame, HEADER_TAG);
+    // Claim a much larger length than the (zero) bytes that follow.
+    writeRawVarint32(frame, 1 << 20);
+
+    final MethodDescriptor.Marshaller<ArrowMessage> marshaller =
+        ArrowMessage.createMarshaller(allocator);
+    final Exception e =
+        assertThrows(
+            Exception.class, () -> marshaller.parse(new ByteArrayInputStream(frame.toByteArray())));
+    assertTrue(
+        e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().contains("exceeds"),
+        "unexpected failure: " + e.getMessage());
+  }
+
+  /** A well-formed field whose length matches the bytes present still parses. */
+  @Test
+  public void frameAcceptsWellFormedField() throws Exception {
+    final byte[] payload = new byte[] {1, 2, 3, 4};
+    final ByteArrayOutputStream frame = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+    writeRawVarint32(frame, APP_METADATA_TAG);
+    writeRawVarint32(frame, payload.length);
+    frame.write(payload);
+
+    final MethodDescriptor.Marshaller<ArrowMessage> marshaller =
+        ArrowMessage.createMarshaller(allocator);
+    try (ArrowMessage message = marshaller.parse(new ByteArrayInputStream(frame.toByteArray()))) {
+      assertNotNull(message.getApplicationMetadata());
+    }
+  }
+
+  private static void writeRawVarint32(ByteArrayOutputStream out, int value) {
+    while (true) {
+      if ((value & ~0x7F) == 0) {
+        out.write(value);
+        return;
+      }
+      out.write((value & 0x7F) | 0x80);
+      value >>>= 7;
+    }
+  }
+}