diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index ea0ec9c6..9b73e4a3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ HISTORY
 
   ++ Bugfixes:
 
+  2009-02-11 Simon Goldschmidt
+  * opt.h, api_msg.c: added configurable default valud for netconn->recv_bufsize:
+    RECV_BUFSIZE_DEFAULT (fixes bug #23726: pbuf pool exhaustion on slow recv())
+
   2009-02-10 Simon Goldschmidt
   * tcp.c: fixed bug #25467: Listen backlog is not reset on timeout in SYN_RCVD:
     Accepts_pending is decrease on a corresponding listen pcb when a connection
diff --git a/src/api/api_msg.c b/src/api/api_msg.c
index 7557c68a..4bb4e2c2 100644
--- a/src/api/api_msg.c
+++ b/src/api/api_msg.c
@@ -532,7 +532,7 @@ netconn_alloc(enum netconn_type t, netconn_callback callback)
   conn->recv_timeout = 0;
 #endif /* LWIP_SO_RCVTIMEO */
 #if LWIP_SO_RCVBUF
-  conn->recv_bufsize = INT_MAX;
+  conn->recv_bufsize = RECV_BUFSIZE_DEFAULT;
 #endif /* LWIP_SO_RCVBUF */
   return conn;
 }
diff --git a/src/include/lwip/opt.h b/src/include/lwip/opt.h
index 8fd94423..0eb57b6f 100644
--- a/src/include/lwip/opt.h
+++ b/src/include/lwip/opt.h
@@ -1115,6 +1115,13 @@
 #define LWIP_SO_RCVBUF                  0
 #endif
 
+/**
+ * If LWIP_SO_RCVBUF is used, this is the default value for recv_bufsize.
+ */
+#ifndef RECV_BUFSIZE_DEFAULT
+#define RECV_BUFSIZE_DEFAULT            INT_MAX
+#endif /* RECV_BUFSIZE_DEFAULT */
+
 /**
  * SO_REUSE==1: Enable SO_REUSEADDR and SO_REUSEPORT options. DO NOT USE!
  */