diff --git a/prdoc/pr_6486.prdoc b/prdoc/pr_6486.prdoc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..e401d3f9a887f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/prdoc/pr_6486.prdoc
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+title: "sp-trie: minor fix to avoid panic on badly-constructed proof"
+
+doc:
+  - audience: ["Runtime Dev", "Runtime User"]
+    description: |
+      "Added a check when decoding encoded proof nodes in `sp-trie` to avoid panicking when receiving a badly constructed proof, instead erroring out."
+
+crates:
+- name: sp-trie
+  bump: patch
diff --git a/substrate/primitives/trie/src/node_codec.rs b/substrate/primitives/trie/src/node_codec.rs
index 78896988ec4c6..27da0c6334a20 100644
--- a/substrate/primitives/trie/src/node_codec.rs
+++ b/substrate/primitives/trie/src/node_codec.rs
@@ -110,6 +110,10 @@ where
 			NodeHeader::Null => Ok(NodePlan::Empty),
 			NodeHeader::HashedValueBranch(nibble_count) | NodeHeader::Branch(_, nibble_count) => {
 				let padding = nibble_count % nibble_ops::NIBBLE_PER_BYTE != 0;
+				// data should be at least the size of the offset
+				if data.len() < input.offset {
+					return Err(Error::BadFormat)
+				}
 				// check that the padding is valid (if any)
 				if padding && nibble_ops::pad_left(data[input.offset]) != 0 {
 					return Err(Error::BadFormat)
@@ -154,6 +158,10 @@ where
 			},
 			NodeHeader::HashedValueLeaf(nibble_count) | NodeHeader::Leaf(nibble_count) => {
 				let padding = nibble_count % nibble_ops::NIBBLE_PER_BYTE != 0;
+				// data should be at least the size of the offset
+				if data.len() < input.offset {
+					return Err(Error::BadFormat)
+				}
 				// check that the padding is valid (if any)
 				if padding && nibble_ops::pad_left(data[input.offset]) != 0 {
 					return Err(Error::BadFormat)