diff --git a/hclsyntax/parser.go b/hclsyntax/parser.go
index d7e175035..f467205af 100644
--- a/hclsyntax/parser.go
+++ b/hclsyntax/parser.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ type parser struct {
 	// in recovery mode, assuming that the recovery heuristics have failed
 	// in this case and left the peeker in a wrong place.
 	recovery bool
+	recursionDepth int
 }
 
 func (p *parser) ParseBody(end TokenType) (*Body, hcl.Diagnostics) {
@@ -548,11 +549,23 @@ func (p *parser) parseTernaryConditional() (Expression, hcl.Diagnostics) {
 		SrcRange: hcl.RangeBetween(startRange, falseExpr.Range()),
 	}, diags
 }
-
+const maxHCLParsingDepth = 1000
 // parseBinaryOps calls itself recursively to work through all of the
 // operator precedence groups, and then eventually calls parseExpressionTerm
 // for each operand.
 func (p *parser) parseBinaryOps(ops []map[TokenType]*Operation) (Expression, hcl.Diagnostics) {
+	p.recursionDepth++
+	if p.recursionDepth > maxHCLParsingDepth {
+		var diags hcl.Diagnostics
+		diags = append(diags, &hcl.Diagnostic{
+			Severity: hcl.DiagError,
+			Summary:  "Expression nesting limit exceeded",
+			Detail:   "The expression contains too many nested layers of parentheses or operations, causing a parser safety cutoff.",
+		})
+		p.recursionDepth--
+		return &LiteralValueExpr{Val: cty.DynamicVal, SrcRange: p.Peek().Range}, diags
+	}
+	defer func() { p.recursionDepth-- }()
 	if len(ops) == 0 {
 		// We've run out of operators, so now we'll just try to parse a term.
 		return p.parseExpressionWithTraversals()
diff --git a/hclsyntax/parser_test.go b/hclsyntax/parser_test.go
index b8d000b00..101c47e07 100644
--- a/hclsyntax/parser_test.go
+++ b/hclsyntax/parser_test.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 package hclsyntax
 
 import (
+	"strings"
 	"fmt"
 	"sync"
 	"testing"
@@ -4329,3 +4330,15 @@ func TestParseConfigDiagnostics(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestParseExpression_nestedParenthesesRecursionGuard(t *testing.T) {
+	src := []byte(strings.Repeat("(", 1001) + "1" + strings.Repeat(")", 1001))
+	_, diags := ParseExpression(src, "test.hcl", hcl.InitialPos)
+	if !diags.HasErrors() {
+		t.Fatal("expected a parser nesting depth error, but got no errors")
+	}
+	expectedSummary := "Expression nesting limit exceeded"
+	if diags[0].Summary != expectedSummary {
+		t.Errorf("expected error summary %q, got %q", expectedSummary, diags[0].Summary)
+	}
+}