diff --git a/lib/elixir_make/downloader/httpc.ex b/lib/elixir_make/downloader/httpc.ex
index 1ea734e..f53026a 100644
--- a/lib/elixir_make/downloader/httpc.ex
+++ b/lib/elixir_make/downloader/httpc.ex
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ defmodule ElixirMake.Downloader.Httpc do
         ] ++ cacerts_options()
     ]
 
-    options = [body_format: :binary]
+    options = [body_format: :binary, max_header_size: 65_536]
 
     case :httpc.request(:get, {url_charlist, []}, https_options, options) do
       {:ok, {{_, 200, _}, _headers, body}} ->
diff --git a/test/elixir_make/downloader/httpc_test.exs b/test/elixir_make/downloader/httpc_test.exs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b2a219
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/elixir_make/downloader/httpc_test.exs
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+defmodule ElixirMake.Downloader.HttpcTest do
+  use ExUnit.Case, async: true
+
+  alias ElixirMake.Downloader.Httpc
+
+  setup_all do
+    if function_exported?(Mix, :ensure_application!, 1) do
+      Mix.ensure_application!(:inets)
+      Mix.ensure_application!(:ssl)
+      Mix.ensure_application!(:crypto)
+    end
+
+    :ok
+  end
+
+  test "downloads a response whose headers exceed httpc's default limit" do
+    {:ok, listen} = :gen_tcp.listen(0, [:binary, active: false, reuseaddr: true])
+    {:ok, port} = :inet.port(listen)
+
+    # GitHub's release-download redirects send about 11 KB of headers.
+    padding = String.duplicate("a", 12_288)
+
+    Task.start_link(fn ->
+      {:ok, socket} = :gen_tcp.accept(listen)
+      {:ok, _request} = :gen_tcp.recv(socket, 0)
+
+      :ok =
+        :gen_tcp.send(
+          socket,
+          "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nx-padding: #{padding}\r\ncontent-length: 3\r\nconnection: close\r\n\r\nnif"
+        )
+
+      :gen_tcp.close(socket)
+    end)
+
+    assert Httpc.download("http://127.0.0.1:#{port}/nif.tar.gz") == {:ok, "nif"}
+  end
+end