diff --git a/attr.c b/attr.c
index a9f7063cfc..41657479ff 100644
--- a/attr.c
+++ b/attr.c
@@ -699,21 +699,22 @@ void git_attr_set_direction(enum git_attr_direction new_direction)
 
 static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_file(const char *path, int macro_ok)
 {
+	struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
 	FILE *fp = fopen_or_warn(path, "r");
 	struct attr_stack *res;
-	char buf[2048];
 	int lineno = 0;
 
 	if (!fp)
 		return NULL;
 	res = xcalloc(1, sizeof(*res));
-	while (fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), fp)) {
-		char *bufp = buf;
-		if (!lineno)
-			skip_utf8_bom(&bufp, strlen(bufp));
-		handle_attr_line(res, bufp, path, ++lineno, macro_ok);
+	while (strbuf_getline(&buf, fp) != EOF) {
+		if (!lineno && starts_with(buf.buf, utf8_bom))
+			strbuf_remove(&buf, 0, strlen(utf8_bom));
+		handle_attr_line(res, buf.buf, path, ++lineno, macro_ok);
 	}
+
 	fclose(fp);
+	strbuf_release(&buf);
 	return res;
 }
 
diff --git a/t/t0003-attributes.sh b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
index b660593c20..416386ce2f 100755
--- a/t/t0003-attributes.sh
+++ b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
@@ -339,4 +339,25 @@ test_expect_success 'query binary macro directly' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'large attributes line ignores trailing content in tree' '
+	test_when_finished "rm .gitattributes" &&
+	# older versions of Git broke lines at 2048 bytes; the 2045 bytes
+	# of 0-padding here is accounting for the three bytes of "a 1", which
+	# would knock "trailing" to the "next" line, where it would be
+	# erroneously parsed.
+	printf "a %02045dtrailing attribute\n" 1 >.gitattributes &&
+	git check-attr --all trailing >actual 2>err &&
+	test_must_be_empty err &&
+	test_must_be_empty actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'large attributes line ignores trailing content in index' '
+	test_when_finished "git update-index --remove .gitattributes" &&
+	blob=$(printf "a %02045dtrailing attribute\n" 1 | git hash-object -w --stdin) &&
+	git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644,$blob,.gitattributes &&
+	git check-attr --cached --all trailing >actual 2>err &&
+	test_must_be_empty err &&
+	test_must_be_empty actual
+'
+
 test_done