diff --git a/Lib/test/pickletester.py b/Lib/test/pickletester.py
index f7099a1b300..73ca9269650 100644
--- a/Lib/test/pickletester.py
+++ b/Lib/test/pickletester.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import unittest
 import pickle
 import cPickle
+import StringIO
 import pickletools
 import copy_reg
 
@@ -1015,6 +1016,10 @@ class AbstractPickleModuleTests(unittest.TestCase):
         self.module.Pickler(f, -1)
         self.module.Pickler(f, protocol=-1)
 
+    def test_incomplete_input(self):
+        s = StringIO.StringIO("X''.")
+        self.assertRaises(EOFError, self.module.load, s)
+
 class AbstractPersistentPicklerTests(unittest.TestCase):
 
     # This class defines persistent_id() and persistent_load()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index df3c2a53b2d..3374e13a988 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -273,6 +273,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #6553: Fixed a crash in cPickle.load(), when given a file-like object
+  containing incomplete data.
+
 - Issue #2622: Fixed an ImportError when importing email.messsage from a
   standalone application built with py2exe or py2app.
 
diff --git a/Modules/cPickle.c b/Modules/cPickle.c
index 1cef5c1f704..8fa4a66c365 100644
--- a/Modules/cPickle.c
+++ b/Modules/cPickle.c
@@ -663,6 +663,12 @@ read_other(Unpicklerobject *self, char **s, Py_ssize_t  n)
 	self->last_string = str;
 
 	if (! (*s = PyString_AsString(str))) return -1;
+
+	if (PyString_GET_SIZE(str) != n) {
+		PyErr_SetNone(PyExc_EOFError);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
 	return n;
 }