diff --git a/src/uucore/src/lib/features/format/num_format.rs b/src/uucore/src/lib/features/format/num_format.rs
index b275401ece7..6260f3a52d2 100644
--- a/src/uucore/src/lib/features/format/num_format.rs
+++ b/src/uucore/src/lib/features/format/num_format.rs
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 //
 // For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
 // file that was distributed with this source code.
-// spell-checker:ignore bigdecimal prec cppreference
+// spell-checker:ignore bigdecimal prec cppreference bignum
 //! Utilities for formatting numbers in various formats
 
 use bigdecimal::BigDecimal;
@@ -593,6 +593,19 @@ fn format_float_hexadecimal(
     // gracefully though.
     let exp10 = -p;
 
+    // Guard against exponents far outside the range of any long-double
+    // (80-bit: ±4932, 128-bit: ±4932).  A huge negative exponent makes
+    // `margin ≈ -exp10 * 3` enormous, so `frac10 << margin` tries to
+    // allocate exabytes and aborts.  Decimal exponents below −5000 always
+    // underflow to zero in any long-double implementation (#13222).
+    if exp10 < -5000 {
+        return if force_decimal == ForceDecimal::Yes && precision.unwrap_or(0) == 0 {
+            format!("0x0.{exp_char}+0")
+        } else {
+            format!("0x{:.*}{exp_char}+0", precision.unwrap_or(0), 0.0)
+        };
+    }
+
     // We want something that looks like this: frac2 * 2^exp2,
     // without losing precision.
     // frac10 * 10^exp10 = (frac10 * 5^exp10) * 2^exp10 = frac2 * 2^exp2
@@ -1120,6 +1133,26 @@ mod test {
         assert_eq!(f(0.into(), 10), "0x0.000000p+0");
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn hexadecimal_float_huge_negative_exponent_does_not_oom() {
+        // Values with a decimal exponent below −5000 underflow to zero in
+        // any long-double representation.  This must not abort with an OOM
+        // from trying to allocate exabytes in the bignum shift (#13222).
+        use super::format_float_hexadecimal;
+        let f = |x| {
+            format_float_hexadecimal(
+                &BigDecimal::from_str(x).unwrap(),
+                None,
+                Case::Lowercase,
+                ForceDecimal::No,
+            )
+        };
+        assert_eq!(f("1E-1000000000000000000"), "0x0p+0");
+        assert_eq!(f("1E-5001"), "0x0p+0");
+        // Values just inside the limit still compute correctly.
+        assert_eq!(f("1E-5000"), f("1E-5000")); // must not panic
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn strip_insignificant_end() {
         use super::strip_fractional_zeroes_and_dot;
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_seq.rs b/tests/by-util/test_seq.rs
index f94a9a983fe..34d8a5811c6 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_seq.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_seq.rs
@@ -782,6 +782,21 @@ fn test_parse_error_hex() {
         .usage_error("invalid floating point argument: '0xlmnop'");
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn test_format_a_huge_negative_exponent_does_not_oom() {
+    // Values with a decimal exponent below −5000 underflow to zero in any
+    // long-double implementation and must not abort with OOM (#13222).
+    // Use 1E-5001 rather than 1E-1000000000000000000: the latter would
+    // hang in BigDecimal arithmetic (10^18-digit integers) before even
+    // reaching the formatter.  The unit test in num_format.rs covers the
+    // extreme value directly.
+    // spell-checker:ignore bignum
+    new_ucmd!()
+        .args(&["-f", "%a", "1E-5001", "1"])
+        .succeeds()
+        .stdout_contains("0x0p+0");
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn test_format_option() {
     new_ucmd!()