diff --git a/libavcodec/vqavideo.c b/libavcodec/vqavideo.c
index 917e04be47..727354defa 100644
--- a/libavcodec/vqavideo.c
+++ b/libavcodec/vqavideo.c
@@ -164,6 +164,11 @@ static av_cold int vqa_decode_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
     s->codebook = av_malloc(s->codebook_size);
     s->next_codebook_buffer = av_malloc(s->codebook_size);
 
+    if (s->width % s->vector_width || s->height % s->vector_height) {
+        av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_ERROR, "Picture dimensions are not a multiple of the vector size\n");
+        return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
+    }
+
     /* initialize the solid-color vectors */
     if (s->vector_height == 4) {
         codebook_index = 0xFF00 * 16;