diff --git a/internal-api/src/main/java/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParser.java b/internal-api/src/main/java/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParser.java
index cf776f27961..3b43ad47457 100644
--- a/internal-api/src/main/java/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParser.java
+++ b/internal-api/src/main/java/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParser.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ public class StableConfigParser {
 
   private static final String ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLES_PREFIX = "environment_variables['";
   private static final String PROCESS_ARGUMENTS_PREFIX = "process_arguments['";
+  static final int MAX_FILE_SIZE_BYTES = 256 * 1024; // 256 KB in bytes;
   private static final String UNDEFINED_VALUE = "";
 
   /**
@@ -39,7 +41,19 @@ public class StableConfigParser {
    */
   public static StableConfigSource.StableConfig parse(String filePath) throws IOException {
     try {
-      String content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(filePath)), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+      Path path = Paths.get(filePath);
+
+      // If file is over size limit, drop
+      if (Files.size(path) > MAX_FILE_SIZE_BYTES) {
+        log.warn(
+            "Configuration file {} exceeds max size {} bytes; dropping.",
+            filePath,
+            MAX_FILE_SIZE_BYTES);
+        return StableConfigSource.StableConfig.EMPTY;
+      }
+
+      String content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(path), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+
       String processedContent = processTemplate(content);
       Object parsedYaml = YamlParser.parse(processedContent);
       StableConfig data = new StableConfig(parsedYaml);
diff --git a/internal-api/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParserTest.groovy b/internal-api/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParserTest.groovy
index 4d8a8561567..636f76d69a0 100644
--- a/internal-api/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParserTest.groovy
+++ b/internal-api/src/test/groovy/datadog/trace/bootstrap/config/provider/StableConfigParserTest.groovy
@@ -184,6 +184,50 @@ apm_configuration_rules:
     Files.delete(filePath)
   }
 
+  def "test file over max size"() {
+    when:
+    Path filePath = Files.createTempFile("testFile_", ".yaml")
+    if (filePath == null) {
+      throw new AssertionError("Failed to create test file")
+    }
+
+    // Create a file with valid contents, but bigger than MAX_FILE_SIZE_BYTES
+    String baseYaml = """
+config_id: 12345
+apm_configuration_default:
+    KEY_ONE: "value_one"
+apm_configuration_rules:
+"""
+    String builderYaml = """
+  - selectors:
+    - origin: language
+      matches: ["Java"]
+      operator: equals
+    configuration:
+      KEY_TWO: "value_two"
+"""
+    String bigYaml = baseYaml
+    while(bigYaml.size() < StableConfigParser.MAX_FILE_SIZE_BYTES) {
+      bigYaml += builderYaml
+    }
+
+    try {
+      Files.write(filePath, bigYaml.getBytes())
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      throw new AssertionError("Failed to write to file: ${e.message}")
+    }
+
+    StableConfigSource.StableConfig cfg
+    try {
+      cfg = StableConfigParser.parse(filePath.toString())
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      throw new AssertionError("Failed to parse the file: ${e.message}")
+    }
+
+    then:
+    cfg == StableConfigSource.StableConfig.EMPTY
+  }
+
   def "test processTemplate valid cases"() {
     when:
     if (envKey != null) {