diff --git a/libavcodec/snowdec.c b/libavcodec/snowdec.c
index c80901b754..734f43e7d1 100644
--- a/libavcodec/snowdec.c
+++ b/libavcodec/snowdec.c
@@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ static int decode_header(SnowContext *s){
                 Plane *p= &s->plane[plane_index];
                 p->diag_mc= get_rac(&s->c, s->header_state);
                 htaps= get_symbol(&s->c, s->header_state, 0)*2 + 2;
-                if((unsigned)htaps > HTAPS_MAX || htaps==0)
+                if((unsigned)htaps >= HTAPS_MAX || htaps==0)
                     return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
                 p->htaps= htaps;
                 for(i= htaps/2; i; i--){