diff --git a/internal/decoder/stream.go b/internal/decoder/stream.go
index a383f725..6c665b21 100644
--- a/internal/decoder/stream.go
+++ b/internal/decoder/stream.go
@@ -190,7 +190,19 @@ func (s *Stream) reset() {
 
 func (s *Stream) readBuf() []byte {
 	if s.filledBuffer {
+		// s.buf may have grown beyond bufSize (e.g. when invalid/multi-byte
+		// characters are expanded to RuneError in place), so resync bufSize to
+		// the real buffer length before growing. Keep doubling until the new
+		// buffer can hold everything already read, otherwise the copy below
+		// truncates the buffer while s.length still refers to the old size,
+		// causing an out-of-range panic when the buffer is scanned.
+		if int64(len(s.buf)) > s.bufSize {
+			s.bufSize = int64(len(s.buf))
+		}
 		s.bufSize *= 2
+		for s.bufSize < s.length {
+			s.bufSize *= 2
+		}
 		remainBuf := s.buf
 		s.buf = make([]byte, s.bufSize)
 		copy(s.buf, remainBuf)
diff --git a/stream_test.go b/stream_test.go
index 7b32df86..917f21a2 100644
--- a/stream_test.go
+++ b/stream_test.go
@@ -526,6 +526,24 @@ func TestLongUTF8(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestIssue424(t *testing.T) {
+	// A JSON string containing a run of incomplete multi-byte UTF-8 lead bytes
+	// used to overflow the stream decode buffer and panic with
+	// "index out of range" (#424). It must now return an error cleanly.
+	var input []byte
+	input = append(input, '"')
+	input = append(input, bytes.Repeat([]byte{'0'}, 252)...)
+	input = append(input, bytes.Repeat([]byte{0xE2}, 257)...)
+	input = append(input, '0', '0')
+
+	dec := json.NewDecoder(bytes.NewReader(input))
+	for {
+		if _, err := dec.Token(); err != nil {
+			break
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestIssue278(t *testing.T) {
 	a := `{"嗷嗷":"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa\u55f7"}`
 	r := strings.NewReader(a)