diff --git a/Documentation/git.txt b/Documentation/git.txt
index 11228956cd..3bac24cf8a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git.txt
@@ -911,6 +911,16 @@ for full details.
 	should not normally need to set this to `0`, but it may be
 	useful when trying to salvage data from a corrupted repository.
 
+`GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA`::
+	When loading a commit object from the commit-graph, Git performs an
+	existence check on the object in the object database. This is done to
+	avoid issues with stale commit-graphs that contain references to
+	already-deleted commits, but comes with a performance penalty.
++
+The default is "true", which enables the aforementioned behavior.
+Setting this to "false" disables the existence check. This can lead to
+a performance improvement at the cost of consistency.
+
 `GIT_ALLOW_PROTOCOL`::
 	If set to a colon-separated list of protocols, behave as if
 	`protocol.allow` is set to `never`, and each of the listed
diff --git a/commit-graph.c b/commit-graph.c
index c2b782af3b..ee66098e07 100644
--- a/commit-graph.c
+++ b/commit-graph.c
@@ -1024,14 +1024,18 @@ int repo_find_commit_pos_in_graph(struct repository *r, struct commit *c,
 
 struct commit *lookup_commit_in_graph(struct repository *repo, const struct object_id *id)
 {
+	static int commit_graph_paranoia = -1;
 	struct commit *commit;
 	uint32_t pos;
 
+	if (commit_graph_paranoia == -1)
+		commit_graph_paranoia = git_env_bool(GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA, 1);
+
 	if (!prepare_commit_graph(repo))
 		return NULL;
 	if (!search_commit_pos_in_graph(id, repo->objects->commit_graph, &pos))
 		return NULL;
-	if (!has_object(repo, id, 0))
+	if (commit_graph_paranoia && !has_object(repo, id, 0))
 		return NULL;
 
 	commit = lookup_commit(repo, id);
diff --git a/commit-graph.h b/commit-graph.h
index c6870274c5..e519cb81cb 100644
--- a/commit-graph.h
+++ b/commit-graph.h
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@
 #define GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH_DIE_ON_PARSE "GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH_DIE_ON_PARSE"
 #define GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH_CHANGED_PATHS "GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH_CHANGED_PATHS"
 
+/*
+ * This environment variable controls whether commits looked up via the
+ * commit graph will be double checked to exist in the object database.
+ */
+#define GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA "GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA"
+
 /*
  * This method is only used to enhance coverage of the commit-graph
  * feature in the test suite with the GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH and
diff --git a/commit.c b/commit.c
index b3223478bc..8405d7c3fc 100644
--- a/commit.c
+++ b/commit.c
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 #include "shallow.h"
 #include "tree.h"
 #include "hook.h"
+#include "parse.h"
 
 static struct commit_extra_header *read_commit_extra_header_lines(const char *buf, size_t len, const char **);
 
@@ -572,8 +573,21 @@ int repo_parse_commit_internal(struct repository *r,
 		return -1;
 	if (item->object.parsed)
 		return 0;
-	if (use_commit_graph && parse_commit_in_graph(r, item))
+	if (use_commit_graph && parse_commit_in_graph(r, item)) {
+		static int commit_graph_paranoia = -1;
+
+		if (commit_graph_paranoia == -1)
+			commit_graph_paranoia = git_env_bool(GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA, 1);
+
+		if (commit_graph_paranoia && !has_object(r, &item->object.oid, 0)) {
+			unparse_commit(r, &item->object.oid);
+			return quiet_on_missing ? -1 :
+				error(_("commit %s exists in commit-graph but not in the object database"),
+				      oid_to_hex(&item->object.oid));
+		}
+
 		return 0;
+	}
 
 	if (oid_object_info_extended(r, &item->object.oid, &oi, flags) < 0)
 		return quiet_on_missing ? -1 :
diff --git a/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh b/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh
index 6505ff595a..134239d40f 100755
--- a/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh
+++ b/t/t5318-commit-graph.sh
@@ -895,4 +895,52 @@ test_expect_success 'reader notices too-small generations chunk' '
 	test_cmp expect.err err
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'stale commit cannot be parsed when given directly' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo" &&
+	git init repo &&
+	(
+		cd repo &&
+		test_commit A &&
+		test_commit B &&
+		git commit-graph write --reachable &&
+
+		oid=$(git rev-parse B) &&
+		rm .git/objects/"$(test_oid_to_path "$oid")" &&
+
+		# Verify that it is possible to read the commit from the
+		# commit graph when not being paranoid, ...
+		GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA=false git rev-list B &&
+		# ... but parsing the commit when double checking that
+		# it actually exists in the object database should fail.
+		test_must_fail git rev-list -1 B
+	)
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'stale commit cannot be parsed when traversing graph' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo" &&
+	git init repo &&
+	(
+		cd repo &&
+
+		test_commit A &&
+		test_commit B &&
+		test_commit C &&
+		git commit-graph write --reachable &&
+
+		# Corrupt the repository by deleting the intermediate commit
+		# object. Commands should notice that this object is absent and
+		# thus that the repository is corrupt even if the commit graph
+		# exists.
+		oid=$(git rev-parse B) &&
+		rm .git/objects/"$(test_oid_to_path "$oid")" &&
+
+		# Again, we should be able to parse the commit when not
+		# being paranoid about commit graph staleness...
+		GIT_COMMIT_GRAPH_PARANOIA=false git rev-parse HEAD~2 &&
+		# ... but fail when we are paranoid.
+		test_must_fail git rev-parse HEAD~2 2>error &&
+		grep "error: commit $oid exists in commit-graph but not in the object database" error
+	)
+'
+
 test_done