diff --git a/include/common/defaults.h b/include/common/defaults.h
index 02962010e..d1994e83f 100644
--- a/include/common/defaults.h
+++ b/include/common/defaults.h
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@
  * when reading HTTP headers, the proxy needs some spare space to add or rewrite
  * headers if needed. The size of this spare is defined with MAXREWRITE. So it
  * is not possible to process headers longer than BUFSIZE-MAXREWRITE bytes. By
- * default, BUFSIZE=16384 bytes and MAXREWRITE=BUFSIZE/2, so the maximum length
- * of headers accepted is 8192 bytes, which is in line with Apache's limits.
+ * default, BUFSIZE=16384 bytes and MAXREWRITE=min(1024,BUFSIZE/2), so the
+ * maximum length of headers accepted is 15360 bytes.
  */
 #ifndef BUFSIZE
 #define BUFSIZE	        16384
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
 
 // reserved buffer space for header rewriting
 #ifndef MAXREWRITE
-#define MAXREWRITE      (BUFSIZE / 2)
+#define MAXREWRITE      1024
 #endif
 
 #ifndef REQURI_LEN
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
index f7944c3aa..d732ac328 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -833,8 +833,6 @@ int cfg_parse_global(const char *file, int linenum, char **args, int kwm)
 			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
 			goto out;
 		}
-		if (global.tune.maxrewrite >= global.tune.bufsize / 2)
-			global.tune.maxrewrite = global.tune.bufsize / 2;
 		chunk_init(&trash, realloc(trash.str, global.tune.bufsize), global.tune.bufsize);
 		alloc_trash_buffers(global.tune.bufsize);
 	}
@@ -847,8 +845,11 @@ int cfg_parse_global(const char *file, int linenum, char **args, int kwm)
 			goto out;
 		}
 		global.tune.maxrewrite = atol(args[1]);
-		if (global.tune.maxrewrite >= global.tune.bufsize / 2)
-			global.tune.maxrewrite = global.tune.bufsize / 2;
+		if (global.tune.maxrewrite < 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects a positive integer argument.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
 	}
 	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "tune.idletimer")) {
 		unsigned int idle;
diff --git a/src/haproxy.c b/src/haproxy.c
index a20f4977b..bdfa31824 100644
--- a/src/haproxy.c
+++ b/src/haproxy.c
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ struct global global = {
 	},
 	.tune = {
 		.bufsize = BUFSIZE,
-		.maxrewrite = MAXREWRITE,
+		.maxrewrite = -1,
 		.chksize = BUFSIZE,
 		.reserved_bufs = RESERVED_BUFS,
 		.pattern_cache = DEFAULT_PAT_LRU_SIZE,
@@ -1018,6 +1018,9 @@ void init(int argc, char **argv)
 	if (global.tune.recv_enough == 0)
 		global.tune.recv_enough = MIN_RECV_AT_ONCE_ENOUGH;
 
+	if (global.tune.maxrewrite < 0)
+		global.tune.maxrewrite = MAXREWRITE;
+
 	if (global.tune.maxrewrite >= global.tune.bufsize / 2)
 		global.tune.maxrewrite = global.tune.bufsize / 2;