diff --git a/server/jetstream_cluster.go b/server/jetstream_cluster.go
index 1da5a95c52..9b03f6bee6 100644
--- a/server/jetstream_cluster.go
+++ b/server/jetstream_cluster.go
@@ -7691,54 +7691,46 @@ const compressThreshold = 8192 // 8k
 
 // If allowed and contents over the threshold we will compress.
 func encodeStreamMsgAllowCompress(subject, reply string, hdr, msg []byte, lseq uint64, ts int64, compressOK bool) []byte {
-	shouldCompress := compressOK && len(subject)+len(reply)+len(hdr)+len(msg) > compressThreshold
-
-	elen := 1 + 8 + 8 + len(subject) + len(reply) + len(hdr) + len(msg)
+	// Clip the subject, reply, header and msgs down. Operate on
+	// uint64 lengths to avoid overflowing.
+	slen := min(uint64(len(subject)), math.MaxUint16)
+	rlen := min(uint64(len(reply)), math.MaxUint16)
+	hlen := min(uint64(len(hdr)), math.MaxUint16)
+	mlen := min(uint64(len(msg)), math.MaxUint32)
+	total := slen + rlen + hlen + mlen
+
+	shouldCompress := compressOK && total > compressThreshold
+	elen := int(1 + 8 + 8 + total)
 	elen += (2 + 2 + 2 + 4) // Encoded lengths, 4bytes
-	// TODO(dlc) - check sizes of subject, reply and hdr, make sure uint16 ok.
-	buf := make([]byte, elen)
+
+	buf := make([]byte, 1, elen)
 	buf[0] = byte(streamMsgOp)
+
 	var le = binary.LittleEndian
-	wi := 1
-	le.PutUint64(buf[wi:], lseq)
-	wi += 8
-	le.PutUint64(buf[wi:], uint64(ts))
-	wi += 8
-	le.PutUint16(buf[wi:], uint16(len(subject)))
-	wi += 2
-	copy(buf[wi:], subject)
-	wi += len(subject)
-	le.PutUint16(buf[wi:], uint16(len(reply)))
-	wi += 2
-	copy(buf[wi:], reply)
-	wi += len(reply)
-	le.PutUint16(buf[wi:], uint16(len(hdr)))
-	wi += 2
-	if len(hdr) > 0 {
-		copy(buf[wi:], hdr)
-		wi += len(hdr)
-	}
-	le.PutUint32(buf[wi:], uint32(len(msg)))
-	wi += 4
-	if len(msg) > 0 {
-		copy(buf[wi:], msg)
-		wi += len(msg)
-	}
+	buf = le.AppendUint64(buf, lseq)
+	buf = le.AppendUint64(buf, uint64(ts))
+	buf = le.AppendUint16(buf, uint16(slen))
+	buf = append(buf, subject[:slen]...)
+	buf = le.AppendUint16(buf, uint16(rlen))
+	buf = append(buf, reply[:rlen]...)
+	buf = le.AppendUint16(buf, uint16(hlen))
+	buf = append(buf, hdr[:hlen]...)
+	buf = le.AppendUint32(buf, uint32(mlen))
+	buf = append(buf, msg[:mlen]...)
 
 	// Check if we should compress.
 	if shouldCompress {
 		nbuf := make([]byte, s2.MaxEncodedLen(elen))
 		nbuf[0] = byte(compressedStreamMsgOp)
-		ebuf := s2.Encode(nbuf[1:], buf[1:wi])
-		// Only pay cost of decode the other side if we compressed.
+		ebuf := s2.Encode(nbuf[1:], buf[1:])
+		// Only pay the cost of decode on the other side if we compressed.
 		// S2 will allow us to try without major penalty for non-compressable data.
-		if len(ebuf) < wi {
-			nbuf = nbuf[:len(ebuf)+1]
-			buf, wi = nbuf, len(nbuf)
+		if len(ebuf) < len(buf) {
+			buf = nbuf[:len(ebuf)+1]
 		}
 	}
 
-	return buf[:wi]
+	return buf
 }
 
 // Determine if all peers in our set support the binary snapshot.