diff --git a/libavcodec/vc2enc.c b/libavcodec/vc2enc.c
index d0101e01e4..e83442ed55 100644
--- a/libavcodec/vc2enc.c
+++ b/libavcodec/vc2enc.c
@@ -981,6 +981,8 @@ static av_cold int vc2_encode_frame(AVCodecContext *avctx, AVPacket *avpkt,
     }
 
     s->slice_min_bytes = s->slice_max_bytes - s->slice_max_bytes*(s->tolerance/100.0f);
+    if (s->slice_min_bytes < 0)
+        return AVERROR(EINVAL);
 
     ret = encode_frame(s, avpkt, frame, aux_data, header_size, s->interlaced);
     if (ret)