diff --git a/pure-magic/src/readers/slice.rs b/pure-magic/src/readers/slice.rs
index aab2b67..24e40f8 100644
--- a/pure-magic/src/readers/slice.rs
+++ b/pure-magic/src/readers/slice.rs
@@ -172,7 +172,11 @@ where
         let start = self.stream_pos;
         let mut end = 0;
 
-        for b in &self.buf.as_ref()[start as usize..] {
+        let Some(buf) = self.buf.as_ref().get(start as usize..) else {
+            return Ok(&[]);
+        };
+
+        for b in buf {
             if limit - end == 0 {
                 break;
             }
@@ -572,6 +576,14 @@ mod tests {
 
     // === read_while_or_limit ===
 
+    #[test]
+    fn test_read_while_or_limit_stream_pos_past_end() {
+        // stream_pos > buf.len() previously cause an OOB panic via unchecked slice indexing
+        let mut r = BufReader::from_slice(b"hello");
+        r.stream_pos = 10; // past end
+        assert_eq!(r.read_while_or_limit(|_| true, 100).unwrap(), b"");
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn test_read_while_or_limit_all_match() {
         let mut r = BufReader::from_slice(b"hello world");