diff --git a/internal/middleware/export_test.go b/internal/middleware/export_test.go
index 2752f1c..222ca64 100644
--- a/internal/middleware/export_test.go
+++ b/internal/middleware/export_test.go
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@ func IPFromHostPort(hp string) string {
 	return ipFromHostPort(hp)
 }
 
+// ClientKeyForTest exposes clientKey for testing.
+func ClientKeyForTest(m *Middleware, r *http.Request) string {
+	return m.clientKey(r)
+}
+
 // IsClientTLS exposes isClientTLS for testing.
 func IsClientTLS(r *http.Request) bool {
 	return isClientTLS(r)
diff --git a/internal/middleware/ratelimit.go b/internal/middleware/ratelimit.go
index 05ad0a9..e32ae52 100644
--- a/internal/middleware/ratelimit.go
+++ b/internal/middleware/ratelimit.go
@@ -81,29 +81,45 @@ func (m *Middleware) isTrustedProxy(addr netip.Addr) bool {
 // Only the last maxForwardedHops entries are examined. A longer chain
 // is padding, and running out of hops falls back to the peer address
 // the same way an unreadable hop does.
+//
+// The entries are cut off the right end of each header value in place
+// rather than split out of it: the receiver is unauthenticated and a
+// client can pad the header up to MaxHeaderBytes, so splitting would
+// allocate in proportion to the padding (about 8 MB for a 1 MB
+// header) before the cap could discard any of it. Multiple header
+// values are walked in reverse for the same reason, since joining
+// them copies the whole chain.
 func (m *Middleware) forwardedClientAddr(
 	r *http.Request,
 ) (netip.Addr, bool) {
-	hops := strings.Split(
-		strings.Join(r.Header.Values("X-Forwarded-For"), ","), ",",
-	)
-	if len(hops) > maxForwardedHops {
-		hops = hops[len(hops)-maxForwardedHops:]
-	}
+	seen := 0
 
-	for _, hop := range slices.Backward(hops) {
-		hop = strings.TrimSpace(hop)
-		if hop == "" {
-			continue
-		}
+	for _, value := range slices.Backward(
+		r.Header.Values("X-Forwarded-For"),
+	) {
+		for last := false; !last && seen < maxForwardedHops; seen++ {
+			hop := value
 
-		addr, err := netip.ParseAddr(hop)
-		if err != nil {
-			return netip.Addr{}, false
-		}
+			comma := strings.LastIndexByte(value, ',')
+			if comma < 0 {
+				last = true
+			} else {
+				hop, value = value[comma+1:], value[:comma]
+			}
 
-		if addr = normalizeAddr(addr); !m.isTrustedProxy(addr) {
-			return addr, true
+			hop = strings.TrimSpace(hop)
+			if hop == "" {
+				continue
+			}
+
+			addr, err := netip.ParseAddr(hop)
+			if err != nil {
+				return netip.Addr{}, false
+			}
+
+			if addr = normalizeAddr(addr); !m.isTrustedProxy(addr) {
+				return addr, true
+			}
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/internal/middleware/ratelimit_test.go b/internal/middleware/ratelimit_test.go
index 64362be..9740f4c 100644
--- a/internal/middleware/ratelimit_test.go
+++ b/internal/middleware/ratelimit_test.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"net/http/httptest"
 	"net/netip"
 	"os"
+	"runtime"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -609,6 +610,66 @@ func TestRateLimitKey_LongChainCapsWalkAndFallsBackToPeer(
 	)
 }
 
+// TestRateLimitKey_LongChainAllocationIsBounded is the allocation
+// half of the hop cap. Capping the walk still left every request
+// paying for the whole header the client sent, because the chain was
+// split before it was capped: about 8 MB of []string for the 1 MB a
+// default MaxHeaderBytes allows, on the unauthenticated receiver.
+//
+// Bytes are the measurement, not allocation count: strings.Split of a
+// 1 MB chain is a single allocation, so testing.AllocsPerRun scores
+// it as cheap. The test is deliberately sequential — it reads
+// process-wide counters, and Go runs this package's parallel tests
+// only after the sequential ones finish.
+//
+//nolint:paralleltest // reads process-wide allocation counters
+func TestRateLimitKey_LongChainAllocationIsBounded(t *testing.T) {
+	// 100k hops of ", 10.0.0.2" is roughly 1 MB.
+	const (
+		hops            = 100000
+		iterations      = 50
+		maxBytesPerCall = 4096
+	)
+
+	m := rateLimitMiddleware(t, &config.Config{
+		TrustedProxies: trustedProxies("10.0.0.0/8"),
+	})
+
+	req := httptest.NewRequestWithContext(
+		context.Background(), http.MethodPost, loginPath, nil,
+	)
+	req.RemoteAddr = "10.0.0.1:44444"
+	req.Header.Set(
+		headerXFF, "9.9.9.9"+strings.Repeat(", 10.0.0.2", hops),
+	)
+
+	var before, after runtime.MemStats
+
+	var key string
+
+	runtime.ReadMemStats(&before)
+
+	for range iterations {
+		key = middleware.ClientKeyForTest(m, req)
+	}
+
+	runtime.ReadMemStats(&after)
+
+	perCall := (after.TotalAlloc - before.TotalAlloc) / iterations
+
+	assert.Less(
+		t, perCall, uint64(maxBytesPerCall),
+		"a %d-byte X-Forwarded-For must not allocate in proportion "+
+			"to its length, but cost %d bytes per call",
+		len(req.Header.Get(headerXFF)), perCall,
+	)
+
+	assert.Equal(
+		t, "10.0.0.1", key,
+		"the padded chain must still fall back to the peer address",
+	)
+}
+
 // TestReceiverRateLimit_IgnoresForwardedFromUntrustedPeer proves
 // the receiver limiter uses the same gated key function as the
 // POST limiters.