diff --git a/diff.c b/diff.c
index 1aca5df522..0ee9ea1c1b 100644
--- a/diff.c
+++ b/diff.c
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 #endif
 
 static int diff_detect_rename_default;
-static int diff_rename_limit_default = -1;
+static int diff_rename_limit_default = 100;
 static int diff_use_color_default;
 int diff_auto_refresh_index = 1;
 
diff --git a/diffcore-rename.c b/diffcore-rename.c
index 6bde4396f2..41b35c3a9e 100644
--- a/diffcore-rename.c
+++ b/diffcore-rename.c
@@ -298,10 +298,25 @@ void diffcore_rename(struct diff_options *options)
 		else if (detect_rename == DIFF_DETECT_COPY)
 			register_rename_src(p->one, 1, p->score);
 	}
-	if (rename_dst_nr == 0 || rename_src_nr == 0 ||
-	    (0 < rename_limit && rename_limit < rename_dst_nr))
+	if (rename_dst_nr == 0 || rename_src_nr == 0)
 		goto cleanup; /* nothing to do */
 
+	/*
+	 * This basically does a test for the rename matrix not
+	 * growing larger than a "rename_limit" square matrix, ie:
+	 *
+	 *    rename_dst_nr * rename_src_nr > rename_limit * rename_limit
+	 *
+	 * but handles the potential overflow case specially (and we
+	 * assume at least 32-bit integers)
+	 */
+	if (rename_limit <= 0 || rename_limit > 32767)
+		rename_limit = 32767;
+	if (rename_dst_nr > rename_limit && rename_src_nr > rename_limit)
+		goto cleanup;
+	if (rename_dst_nr * rename_src_nr > rename_limit * rename_limit)
+		goto cleanup;
+
 	/* We really want to cull the candidates list early
 	 * with cheap tests in order to avoid doing deltas.
 	 * The first round matches up the up-to-date entries,
diff --git a/wt-status.c b/wt-status.c
index 52054201c2..10ce6eedc7 100644
--- a/wt-status.c
+++ b/wt-status.c
@@ -227,6 +227,7 @@ static void wt_status_print_updated(struct wt_status *s)
 	rev.diffopt.format_callback = wt_status_print_updated_cb;
 	rev.diffopt.format_callback_data = s;
 	rev.diffopt.detect_rename = 1;
+	rev.diffopt.rename_limit = 100;
 	wt_read_cache(s);
 	run_diff_index(&rev, 1);
 }