diff --git a/usr/gen_init_cpio.c b/usr/gen_init_cpio.c
index bf5b98c6cf8d..0e2c8a5838b1 100644
--- a/usr/gen_init_cpio.c
+++ b/usr/gen_init_cpio.c
@@ -320,6 +320,12 @@ static int cpio_mkfile(const char *name, const char *location,
 		goto error;
 	}
 
+	if (buf.st_mtime > 0xffffffff) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "%s: Timestamp exceeds maximum cpio timestamp, clipping.\n",
+			location);
+		buf.st_mtime = 0xffffffff;
+	}
+
 	filebuf = malloc(buf.st_size);
 	if (!filebuf) {
 		fprintf (stderr, "out of memory\n");
@@ -551,6 +557,16 @@ int main (int argc, char *argv[])
 		}
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Timestamps after 2106-02-07 06:28:15 UTC have an ascii hex time_t
+	 * representation that exceeds 8 chars and breaks the cpio header
+	 * specification.
+	 */
+	if (default_mtime > 0xffffffff) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: Timestamp too large for cpio format\n");
+		exit(1);
+	}
+
 	if (argc - optind != 1) {
 		usage(argv[0]);
 		exit(1);