diff --git a/src/uu/fmt/src/fmt.rs b/src/uu/fmt/src/fmt.rs
index dd8f10fd882..06cac3cb3ea 100644
--- a/src/uu/fmt/src/fmt.rs
+++ b/src/uu/fmt/src/fmt.rs
@@ -141,7 +141,10 @@ impl FmtOptions {
                 (0, 0)
             }
             (Some(w), None) => {
-                let g = (w * DEFAULT_GOAL_TO_WIDTH_RATIO / 100).max(1);
+                let g = match w.checked_mul(DEFAULT_GOAL_TO_WIDTH_RATIO) {
+                    Some(result) => (result / 100).max(1),
+                    None => { Err(FmtError::InvalidWidth(w.to_string())) }?,
+                };
                 (w, g)
             }
             (None, Some(g)) => {
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_fmt.rs b/tests/by-util/test_fmt.rs
index b223da5bc5c..8953cfe8a4e 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_fmt.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_fmt.rs
@@ -428,3 +428,11 @@ fn test_fmt_invalid_utf8() {
         .succeeds()
         .stdout_is_bytes(b"=\xA0=\n");
 }
+
+#[test]
+fn test_fmt_width_multiplication_overflow() {
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .args(&["-w", "267672676527678256"])
+        .fails_with_code(1)
+        .stderr_is("fmt: invalid width: '267672676527678256'\n");
+}