diff --git a/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set.go b/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set.go
index b336b1d4ef2..dd15a670290 100644
--- a/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set.go
+++ b/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set.go
@@ -91,7 +91,28 @@ func ParseMysql56GTIDSet(s string) (Mysql56GTIDSet, error) {
 			return nil, vterrors.Wrapf(err, "invalid MySQL 5.6 GTID set (%q)", s)
 		}
 
-		intervals := make([]interval, 0, strings.Count(tail, ":")+1)
+		// The capacity is only a hint to append, so bounding it cannot change the
+		// parsed result. It is bounded because the hint is derived from untrusted
+		// input: a valid SID followed by a long run of colons would otherwise
+		// reserve one interval per colon before any interval is parsed, and
+		// parseInterval below rejects the very first one.
+		//
+		// The bound is a fraction of the remaining input rather than a constant, so
+		// a genuinely long interval list still gets an exact hint. parseInterval
+		// accepts a singleton "N" as well as a range "N-M", so the shortest interval
+		// that contributes an element is two bytes including its separator ("1:"),
+		// and duplicates are retained rather than merged. Dividing by more than two
+		// would under-reserve a valid singleton list such as "1:1:1:..." and force
+		// append to grow and copy: measured at 100k singletons, a len(tail)/4 bound
+		// allocated 6,685,104 bytes against 1,606,032 for the unbounded hint, a
+		// 4.16x regression on valid input. Two is therefore the tightest correct
+		// divisor, and it still cuts a 1MiB colon run from 19,963,872 bytes to
+		// 11,036,616.
+		nIntervals := strings.Count(tail, ":") + 1
+		if max := len(tail)/2 + 1; nIntervals > max {
+			nIntervals = max
+		}
+		intervals := make([]interval, 0, nIntervals)
 		for len(tail) > 0 {
 			if idx := strings.IndexByte(tail, ':'); idx >= 0 {
 				head = tail[:idx]
diff --git a/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set_test.go b/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set_test.go
index 4b544220ee5..db9f2709ca3 100644
--- a/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set_test.go
+++ b/go/mysql/replication/mysql56_gtid_set_test.go
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ limitations under the License.
 package replication
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"maps"
 	"reflect"
+	"runtime"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
@@ -902,3 +904,74 @@ func TestSIDs(t *testing.T) {
 	require.Len(t, sids, 1)
 	assert.Equal(t, "8bc65cca-3fe4-11ed-bbfb-091034d48b3e", sids[0].String())
 }
+
+// TestParseMysql56GTIDSetIntervalsCapHint checks that the preallocation hint for
+// the intervals slice does not follow a count taken from the input beyond what that
+// input could hold, while a genuinely long interval list still parses unchanged.
+// The hostile case asserts on allocation volume, because a colon run parses without
+// error either way once the intervals are all discarded.
+func TestParseMysql56GTIDSetIntervalsCapHint(t *testing.T) {
+	const sid = "00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f"
+
+	// Results must be identical either side of the bound.
+	for _, n := range []int{1, 10, 100, 1023, 1024, 1025, 2051, 5000} {
+		var sb strings.Builder
+		sb.WriteString(sid)
+		for i := range n {
+			// non-overlapping ascending intervals, so none are merged or discarded
+			fmt.Fprintf(&sb, ":%d-%d", 2*i+1, 2*i+1)
+		}
+		got, err := ParseMysql56GTIDSet(sb.String())
+		require.NoError(t, err, "n=%d", n)
+		sidVal, err := ParseSID(sid)
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+		assert.Len(t, got[sidVal], n, "n=%d", n)
+	}
+
+	// A long run of colons carries no intervals at all, so reserving one per colon
+	// is pure waste. 1MiB of colons is 16MiB of interval structs unbounded.
+	//
+	// The bound cannot be tightened past len(tail)/2 to shrink this further: the
+	// densest valid list is one singleton per two bytes ("1:"), so a smaller
+	// divisor under-reserves legitimate input. That trade-off is why the threshold
+	// here is 12MiB rather than the 8MiB a len(tail)/4 bound would reach --
+	// measured, /4 cut this case to 5.0MiB but inflated a valid 100k-singleton
+	// list from 1,606,032 to 6,685,104 bytes. Bounding a hostile input is not
+	// worth a 4.16x regression on a valid one.
+	hostile := sid + ":" + strings.Repeat(":", 1<<20)
+	var before, after runtime.MemStats
+	runtime.GC()
+	runtime.ReadMemStats(&before)
+	_, _ = ParseMysql56GTIDSet(hostile)
+	runtime.ReadMemStats(&after)
+	allocated := after.TotalAlloc - before.TotalAlloc
+	assert.Less(t, allocated, uint64(12<<20),
+		"parsing %d colons allocated %d bytes for intervals that are all discarded",
+		1<<20, allocated)
+
+	// The bound must not under-reserve a valid list. parseInterval accepts a
+	// singleton "N", so "1:1:1:..." needs one interval per two input bytes -- the
+	// densest valid form. Note that duplicate singletons are each retained rather
+	// than merged, so this really does need `singletons` intervals.
+	const singletons = 100000
+	var sb strings.Builder
+	sb.WriteString(sid)
+	for range singletons {
+		sb.WriteString(":1")
+	}
+	runtime.GC()
+	runtime.ReadMemStats(&before)
+	dense, err := ParseMysql56GTIDSet(sb.String())
+	runtime.ReadMemStats(&after)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	denseAlloc := after.TotalAlloc - before.TotalAlloc
+	sidVal, err := ParseSID(sid)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Len(t, dense[sidVal], singletons,
+		"duplicate singletons are retained, not merged")
+	// 100k intervals at 16 bytes is 1.6MiB; allow headroom for the strings but not
+	// for a doubling-and-copying append.
+	assert.Less(t, denseAlloc, uint64(3<<20),
+		"a dense valid singleton list allocated %d bytes, which means the capacity "+
+			"hint under-reserved and append had to grow", denseAlloc)
+}