diff --git a/eccdata.c b/eccdata.c
index 8aa57e06214b0ac43f504ef39869defe1c9b77d3..d67ca0df9229b136dc3236c2319a1ea9eaf02642 100644
--- a/eccdata.c
+++ b/eccdata.c
@@ -664,6 +664,7 @@ ecc_pippenger_precompute (struct ecc_curve *ecc, unsigned k, unsigned c)
   ecc->pippenger_k = k;
   ecc->pippenger_c = c;
   ecc->table_size = M << c;
+  assert (ecc->table_size >= 2);
   ecc->table = ecc_alloc (ecc->table_size);
 
   /* Compute the first 2^c entries */