diff --git a/caam-blob-example/README.md b/caam-blob-example/README.md
index 805cc82..67b898d 100644
--- a/caam-blob-example/README.md
+++ b/caam-blob-example/README.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ This example application shows how to encapsulate/decapsulate data to/from CAAM
 CAAM blobs are a way to protect sensitive data by encrypting their contents.
 You can think of CAAM blobs as data encrypted with an internal unreadable device-specific key which is protected by the hardware.
 Data encapsulated in a CAAM blob can only be decapsulated by the device that created it.
-When creating CAAM blobs, the input data size is limited to 1048527 bytes.
+When creating CAAM blobs, the input data size is limited to 65487 bytes.
 Note that CAAM blobs are slightly bigger than the input data (48 bytes bigger).
 
 A key modifier may be used to further differentiate the key used in a particular blob.
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ For more information, see the [Digi Embedded Yocto online documentation](https:/
 
 License
 -------
-Copyright 2019, Digi International Inc.
+Copyright 2019-2021, Digi International Inc.
 
 Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose
 with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
diff --git a/caam-blob-example/caam_ops.h b/caam-blob-example/caam_ops.h
index a1d6d55..71c3835 100644
--- a/caam-blob-example/caam_ops.h
+++ b/caam-blob-example/caam_ops.h
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * caam_ops.h
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2019 by Digi International Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2019-2021, by Digi International Inc.
  * All rights reserved.
  *
  * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -32,10 +32,13 @@
 /* Key modifier: 16 bytes for a general memory blob (see SRM 5.8.4.7.1) */
 #define KEY_MODIFIER_SIZE 	16
 
+#define SZ_1K			1024
+
 /*
- * Testing shows that input sizes bigger than this value usually fail.
+ * The input size is stored in 16 bits in the CAAM job descriptor, which means
+ * the upper limit is 64 KiB minus one byte
  */
-#define BLOB_MAX_INPUT_SIZE 	(1024 * 1024 - BLOB_OVERHEAD)
+#define BLOB_MAX_INPUT_SIZE 	(64 * SZ_1K - 1)
 
 int caamblob_encrypt(const uint8_t *data,
 		     size_t size,
diff --git a/caam-blob-example/main.c b/caam-blob-example/main.c
index e1fe848..feac161 100644
--- a/caam-blob-example/main.c
+++ b/caam-blob-example/main.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * main.c
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2019 by Digi International Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2019-2021 by Digi International Inc.
  * All rights reserved.
  *
  * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	size_t output_len;
 	uint8_t key_modifier[KEY_MODIFIER_SIZE];
 	int ret = EXIT_SUCCESS;
+	size_t max_input_len = BLOB_MAX_INPUT_SIZE;
 
 	if (argc > 0)
 		program_name = argv[0];
@@ -187,10 +188,20 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 		return EXIT_FAILURE;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * if we're going to encrypt a file, subtract the blob overhead from
+	 * the maximum allowed size so that the output blob size can fit in the
+	 * CAAM encryption job descriptor
+	 */
+	max_input_len -= op == ENCRYPT ? BLOB_OVERHEAD : 0;
+
 	/* this is a limitation of the current driver implementation */
-	if (input_len >= BLOB_MAX_INPUT_SIZE)
-		fprintf(stderr, "[WARNING] Input is too big, %s may fail\n",
-			op == ENCRYPT ? "encryption" : "decryption");
+	if (input_len > max_input_len) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "[ERROR] Input is too big, continuing may result in unexpected behavior.\n"
+			"[ERROR] The maximum input size for %s is %u bytes.\n",
+			op == ENCRYPT ? "encryption" : "decryption", max_input_len);
+		return EXIT_FAILURE;
+	}
 
 	input_data = mmap(NULL, input_len, PROT_READ,
 			  MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_POPULATE, input_fd, 0);