diff --git a/src/encoding/gob/decode.go b/src/encoding/gob/decode.go
index 7bca13c957..470e357b10 100644
--- a/src/encoding/gob/decode.go
+++ b/src/encoding/gob/decode.go
@@ -57,17 +57,6 @@ func (d *decBuffer) Drop(n int) {
 	d.offset += n
 }
 
-// Size grows the buffer to exactly n bytes, so d.Bytes() will
-// return a slice of length n. Existing data is first discarded.
-func (d *decBuffer) Size(n int) {
-	d.Reset()
-	if cap(d.data) < n {
-		d.data = make([]byte, n)
-	} else {
-		d.data = d.data[0:n]
-	}
-}
-
 func (d *decBuffer) ReadByte() (byte, error) {
 	if d.offset >= len(d.data) {
 		return 0, io.EOF
@@ -85,6 +74,12 @@ func (d *decBuffer) Bytes() []byte {
 	return d.data[d.offset:]
 }
 
+// SetBytes sets the buffer to the bytes, discarding any existing data.
+func (d *decBuffer) SetBytes(data []byte) {
+	d.data = data
+	d.offset = 0
+}
+
 func (d *decBuffer) Reset() {
 	d.data = d.data[0:0]
 	d.offset = 0
diff --git a/src/encoding/gob/decoder.go b/src/encoding/gob/decoder.go
index 9c4257eb3b..5b77adc7e8 100644
--- a/src/encoding/gob/decoder.go
+++ b/src/encoding/gob/decoder.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ package gob
 import (
 	"bufio"
 	"errors"
+	"internal/saferio"
 	"io"
 	"reflect"
 	"sync"
@@ -98,8 +99,9 @@ func (dec *Decoder) readMessage(nbytes int) {
 		panic("non-empty decoder buffer")
 	}
 	// Read the data
-	dec.buf.Size(nbytes)
-	_, dec.err = io.ReadFull(dec.r, dec.buf.Bytes())
+	var buf []byte
+	buf, dec.err = saferio.ReadData(dec.r, uint64(nbytes))
+	dec.buf.SetBytes(buf)
 	if dec.err == io.EOF {
 		dec.err = io.ErrUnexpectedEOF
 	}
diff --git a/src/go/build/deps_test.go b/src/go/build/deps_test.go
index 07bac04dcb..19b886875c 100644
--- a/src/go/build/deps_test.go
+++ b/src/go/build/deps_test.go
@@ -187,6 +187,9 @@ var depsRules = `
 	  text/scanner,
 	  text/tabwriter;
 
+	io, reflect
+	< internal/saferio;
+
 	# encodings
 	# core ones do not use fmt.
 	io, strconv
@@ -200,7 +203,7 @@ var depsRules = `
 
 	fmt !< encoding/base32, encoding/base64;
 
-	FMT, encoding/base32, encoding/base64
+	FMT, encoding/base32, encoding/base64, internal/saferio
 	< encoding/ascii85, encoding/csv, encoding/gob, encoding/hex,
 	  encoding/json, encoding/pem, encoding/xml, mime;
 
@@ -239,9 +242,6 @@ var depsRules = `
 	encoding/binary, regexp
 	< index/suffixarray;
 
-	io, reflect
-	< internal/saferio;
-
 	# executable parsing
 	FMT, encoding/binary, compress/zlib, internal/saferio
 	< runtime/debug