diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_vnodeops.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_vnodeops.c
index 4ecf2a549060..ce9268a2f56b 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_vnodeops.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_vnodeops.c
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ xfs_readlink(
 	char		*link)
 {
 	xfs_mount_t	*mp = ip->i_mount;
-	int		pathlen;
+	xfs_fsize_t	pathlen;
 	int		error = 0;
 
 	trace_xfs_readlink(ip);
@@ -122,13 +122,19 @@ xfs_readlink(
 
 	xfs_ilock(ip, XFS_ILOCK_SHARED);
 
-	ASSERT(S_ISLNK(ip->i_d.di_mode));
-	ASSERT(ip->i_d.di_size <= MAXPATHLEN);
-
 	pathlen = ip->i_d.di_size;
 	if (!pathlen)
 		goto out;
 
+	if (pathlen < 0 || pathlen > MAXPATHLEN) {
+		xfs_alert(mp, "%s: inode (%llu) bad symlink length (%lld)",
+			 __func__, (unsigned long long) ip->i_ino,
+			 (long long) pathlen);
+		ASSERT(0);
+		return XFS_ERROR(EFSCORRUPTED);
+	}
+
+
 	if (ip->i_df.if_flags & XFS_IFINLINE) {
 		memcpy(link, ip->i_df.if_u1.if_data, pathlen);
 		link[pathlen] = '\0';