diff --git a/configuration/src/hll.c b/configuration/src/hll.c
index ddc6354..d4fa502 100644
--- a/configuration/src/hll.c
+++ b/configuration/src/hll.c
@@ -248,16 +248,39 @@ typedef struct
     uint32_t		brc_mask;	// Read mask.
     uint8_t const *	brc_curp;	// Current byte.
     size_t			brc_used;	// Used bits.
+    void *          brc_past_end_of_bitstream; // Enable special handling of end bytes
 
 } bitstream_read_cursor_t;
 
+
 static uint32_t
 bitstream_unpack(bitstream_read_cursor_t * brcp)
 {
     uint32_t retval;
+    uint64_t qw = 0;
+
+    uint64_t * past_qw = (uint64_t *)brcp->brc_curp;
+    past_qw++;
 
-    // Fetch the quadword containing our data.
-    uint64_t qw = * (uint64_t const *) brcp->brc_curp;
+    /*  Fetch the quadword containing our data.  */
+    if ((void*)past_qw <= brcp->brc_past_end_of_bitstream)
+    {
+        /*  Quadword is entirely within the allocated size, so do a quadword read */
+        qw = * (uint64_t const *) brcp->brc_curp;
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        /*  Not enough bytes remain to do a full quadword read, so do it one byte at a time */
+        uint8_t * source_byte_ptr = (uint8_t  *)brcp->brc_curp;
+        uint8_t * target_byte_array = (uint8_t  *)(&qw);
+        for (int k=0; k<sizeof(uint64_t); k++)
+        {
+            if ((void*)source_byte_ptr >= brcp->brc_past_end_of_bitstream)
+                break;
+            target_byte_array[k] = *source_byte_ptr;
+            source_byte_ptr++;
+        }
+    }
 
     // Swap the bytes.
     qw = bswap_64(qw);
@@ -353,12 +376,15 @@ sparse_unpack(compreg_t * i_regp,
     brc.brc_mask = (1 << chunksz) - 1;
     brc.brc_curp = i_bitp;
     brc.brc_used = 0;
+    brc.brc_past_end_of_bitstream = (void*)(&(i_bitp[i_size]));
 
     for (ssize_t ii = 0; ii < i_nfilled; ++ii)
     {
-        uint32_t buffer = bitstream_unpack(&brc);
-        uint32_t val = buffer & regmask;
-        uint32_t ndx = buffer >> i_width;
+		uint32_t buffer, val, ndx;
+        Assert((void*)brc.brc_curp < brc.brc_past_end_of_bitstream);
+        buffer = bitstream_unpack(&brc);
+        val = buffer & regmask;
+        ndx = buffer >> i_width;
         i_regp[ndx] = val;
     }
 }