diff --git a/src/mgmt/rpc/server/IPCSocketServer.cc b/src/mgmt/rpc/server/IPCSocketServer.cc
index 6b6ebbe7c22..8b841b8e055 100644
--- a/src/mgmt/rpc/server/IPCSocketServer.cc
+++ b/src/mgmt/rpc/server/IPCSocketServer.cc
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ IPCSocketServer::Client::read_all(Buffer &bw) const
       return {false, swoc::bwprint(buff, "Peer disconnected. EOF")};
     }
     bw.save(ret);
-    if (_max_req_size - bw.stored() > 0) { // we can still read more.
+    if (bw.stored() < _max_req_size) { // we can still read more.
       using namespace std::chrono_literals;
       if (!this->poll_for_data(1ms)) {
         return {true, buff};
diff --git a/src/mgmt/rpc/server/unit_tests/test_rpcserver.cc b/src/mgmt/rpc/server/unit_tests/test_rpcserver.cc
index 39639a46bc8..5c61b444218 100644
--- a/src/mgmt/rpc/server/unit_tests/test_rpcserver.cc
+++ b/src/mgmt/rpc/server/unit_tests/test_rpcserver.cc
@@ -519,6 +519,15 @@ TEST_CASE("Sending a message bigger than the internal server's buffer. 32000", "
       auto              resp = rpc_client.query(json);
       REQUIRE(resp == R"({"jsonrpc": "2.0", "result": {"size": "32000"}, "id": "32k_1"})");
     }());
+
+    const int oversized_message_size{64000};
+    auto      oversized_json{R"({"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "do_nothing32000", "params": {"msg":")" +
+                        random_string(oversized_message_size) + R"("}, "id":"over-limit"})"};
+    REQUIRE_NOTHROW([&]() {
+      ScopedLocalSocket rpc_client;
+      auto              resp = rpc_client.query(oversized_json);
+      REQUIRE(resp.empty());
+    }());
   }
   REQUIRE(rpc::test_remove_handler("do_nothing32000"));
 }