diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/btf_dump.c b/tools/lib/bpf/btf_dump.c
index 98cb3831aa18..b91dd7cd4ffb 100644
--- a/tools/lib/bpf/btf_dump.c
+++ b/tools/lib/bpf/btf_dump.c
@@ -2126,9 +2126,25 @@ static int btf_dump_type_data_check_overflow(struct btf_dump *d,
 					     const struct btf_type *t,
 					     __u32 id,
 					     const void *data,
-					     __u8 bits_offset)
+					     __u8 bits_offset,
+					     __u8 bit_sz)
 {
-	__s64 size = btf__resolve_size(d->btf, id);
+	__s64 size;
+
+	if (bit_sz) {
+		/* bits_offset is at most 7. bit_sz is at most 128. */
+		__u8 nr_bytes = (bits_offset + bit_sz + 7) / 8;
+
+		/* When bit_sz is non zero, it is called from
+		 * btf_dump_struct_data() where it only cares about
+		 * negative error value.
+		 * Return nr_bytes in success case to make it
+		 * consistent as the regular integer case below.
+		 */
+		return data + nr_bytes > d->typed_dump->data_end ? -E2BIG : nr_bytes;
+	}
+
+	size = btf__resolve_size(d->btf, id);
 
 	if (size < 0 || size >= INT_MAX) {
 		pr_warn("unexpected size [%zu] for id [%u]\n",
@@ -2281,7 +2297,7 @@ static int btf_dump_dump_type_data(struct btf_dump *d,
 {
 	int size, err = 0;
 
-	size = btf_dump_type_data_check_overflow(d, t, id, data, bits_offset);
+	size = btf_dump_type_data_check_overflow(d, t, id, data, bits_offset, bit_sz);
 	if (size < 0)
 		return size;
 	err = btf_dump_type_data_check_zero(d, t, id, data, bits_offset, bit_sz);