diff --git a/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/XmlDecoder.java b/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/XmlDecoder.java
index 1712c277..2fc11380 100644
--- a/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/XmlDecoder.java
+++ b/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/XmlDecoder.java
@@ -41,25 +41,24 @@
  * @author Christoph Böhme
  *
  */
-@Description("Reads an XML file and passes the XML events to a receiver.")
+@Description("Reads an XML file and passes the XML events to a receiver. Set `totalEntitySizeLimit=\"0\"` to allow unlimited XML entities.")
 @In(Reader.class)
 @Out(XmlReceiver.class)
 @FluxCommand("decode-xml")
 public final class XmlDecoder extends DefaultObjectPipe<Reader, XmlReceiver> {
 
     private static final String SAX_PROPERTY_LEXICAL_HANDLER = "http://xml.org/sax/properties/lexical-handler";
-
+    private static final String TOTAL_ENTITY_SIZE_LIMIT = "http://www.oracle.com/xml/jaxp/properties/totalEntitySizeLimit";
     private final XMLReader saxReader;
 
     /**
-     * Constructs an XmlDecoder by obtaining a new instance of an
+     * Creates an instance of {@link XmlDecoder} by obtaining a new instance of an
      * {@link org.xml.sax.XMLReader}.
      */
     public XmlDecoder() {
         try {
             final SAXParserFactory parserFactory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
             parserFactory.setNamespaceAware(true);
-
             saxReader = parserFactory.newSAXParser().getXMLReader();
         }
         catch (final ParserConfigurationException | SAXException e) {
@@ -67,15 +66,29 @@ public XmlDecoder() {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Sets the total entity size limit for the XML parser.
+     * See <a href="https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/13/security/java-api-xml-processing-jaxp-security-guide.html#GUID-82F8C206-F2DF-4204-9544-F96155B1D258__TABLE_RQ1_3PY_HHB">java-api-xml-processing-jaxp-security-guide.html</a>
+     *
+     * Defaults to "50,000,000". Set to "0" to allow unlimited entities.
+     *
+     * @param totalEntitySizeLimit the size of the allowed entities. Set to "0" if entities should be unlimited.
+     */
+    public void setTotalEntitySizeLimit(final String totalEntitySizeLimit) {
+        try {
+            saxReader.setProperty(TOTAL_ENTITY_SIZE_LIMIT, totalEntitySizeLimit);
+        }
+        catch (final SAXException e) {
+            throw new MetafactureException(e);
+        }
+    }
+
     @Override
     public void process(final Reader reader) {
         try {
             saxReader.parse(new InputSource(reader));
         }
-        catch (final IOException e) {
-            throw new MetafactureException(e);
-        }
-        catch (final SAXException e) {
+        catch (final IOException | SAXException e) {
             throw new MetafactureException(e);
         }
     }
@@ -89,10 +102,7 @@ protected void onSetReceiver() {
         try {
             saxReader.setProperty(SAX_PROPERTY_LEXICAL_HANDLER, getReceiver());
         }
-        catch (final SAXNotRecognizedException e) {
-            throw new MetafactureException(e);
-        }
-        catch (final SAXNotSupportedException e) {
+        catch (final SAXNotRecognizedException | SAXNotSupportedException e) {
             throw new MetafactureException(e);
         }
     }
diff --git a/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/XmlDecoderTest.java b/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/XmlDecoderTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7414aece
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/XmlDecoderTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2024 Pascal Christoph (hbz)
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 the "License";
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.metafacture.xml;
+
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.metafacture.framework.MetafactureException;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Reader;
+import java.io.StringReader;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for class {@link XmlDecoder}.
+ *
+ * @author Pascal Christoph (dr0i)
+ */
+public final class XmlDecoderTest {
+
+    private final String TEST_XML_WITH_TWO_ENTITIES = "<record>&gt;&gt;</record>";
+    private XmlDecoder xmlDecoder;
+    private final Reader reader = new StringReader(TEST_XML_WITH_TWO_ENTITIES);
+
+    @Before
+    public void initSystemUnderTest() {
+        xmlDecoder = new XmlDecoder();
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void issue554_default() {
+        process(xmlDecoder);
+    }
+
+    @Test(expected = MetafactureException.class)
+    public void issue554_shouldFail() {
+        xmlDecoder.setTotalEntitySizeLimit("1");
+        process(xmlDecoder);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void issue554_unlimitedEntities() {
+        xmlDecoder.setTotalEntitySizeLimit("0");
+        process(xmlDecoder);
+    }
+
+    private void process(XmlDecoder xmlDecoder) {
+        try {
+            xmlDecoder.process(reader);
+            reader.close();
+        }
+        catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        }
+    }
+}