diff --git a/Lib/test/test_socket.py b/Lib/test/test_socket.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_socket.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_socket.py
@@ -1620,6 +1620,16 @@ class BufferIOTest(SocketConnectedTest):
 
     _testRecvFromIntoMemoryview = _testRecvFromIntoArray
 
+    def testRecvFromIntoSmallBuffer(self):
+        # See issue #20246.
+        buf = bytearray(8)
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, self.cli_conn.recvfrom_into, buf, 1024)
+
+    def _testRecvFromIntoSmallBuffer(self):
+        with test_support.check_py3k_warnings():
+            buf = buffer(MSG*2048)
+        self.serv_conn.send(buf)
+
 
 TIPC_STYPE = 2000
 TIPC_LOWER = 200
diff --git a/Modules/socketmodule.c b/Modules/socketmodule.c
--- a/Modules/socketmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/socketmodule.c
@@ -2742,6 +2742,10 @@ sock_recvfrom_into(PySocketSockObject *s
     if (recvlen == 0) {
         /* If nbytes was not specified, use the buffer's length */
         recvlen = buflen;
+    } else if (recvlen > buflen) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,
+                        "nbytes is greater than the length of the buffer");
+        return NULL;
     }
 
     readlen = sock_recvfrom_guts(s, buf.buf, recvlen, flags, &addr);