diff --git a/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/vici_message.c b/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/vici_message.c
index b0bd03eab..b982a5f4e 100644
--- a/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/vici_message.c
+++ b/src/libcharon/plugins/vici/vici_message.c
@@ -183,7 +183,11 @@ METHOD(enumerator_t, parse_enumerate, bool,
 			this->list = TRUE;
 			break;
 		case VICI_LIST_ITEM:
-			this->reader->read_data16(this->reader, value);
+			if (!this->reader->read_data16(this->reader, value))
+			{
+				DBG1(DBG_ENC, "invalid '%N' encoding", vici_type_names, type);
+				return FALSE;
+			}
 			break;
 		case VICI_LIST_END:
 			this->list = FALSE;