diff --git a/libraries/chain/controller.cpp b/libraries/chain/controller.cpp
index c8ac4affdd5..20ca6960276 100644
--- a/libraries/chain/controller.cpp
+++ b/libraries/chain/controller.cpp
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
 #include <fc/scoped_exit.hpp>
 #include <fc/variant_object.hpp>
 
+#include <new>
+
 namespace eosio { namespace chain {
 
 using resource_limits::resource_limits_manager;
@@ -213,6 +215,14 @@ struct pending_state {
 };
 
 struct controller_impl {
+
+   // LLVM sets the new handler, we need to reset this to throw a bad_alloc exception so we can possibly exit cleanly
+   // and not just abort.
+   struct reset_new_handler {
+      reset_new_handler() { std::set_new_handler([](){ throw std::bad_alloc(); }); }
+   };
+
+   reset_new_handler              rnh; // placed here to allow for this to be set before constructing the other fields
    controller&                    self;
    chainbase::database            db;
    chainbase::database            reversible_blocks; ///< a special database to persist blocks that have successfully been applied but are still reversible
@@ -286,7 +296,8 @@ struct controller_impl {
    }
 
    controller_impl( const controller::config& cfg, controller& s, protocol_feature_set&& pfs, const chain_id_type& chain_id )
-   :self(s),
+   :rnh(),
+    self(s),
     db( cfg.state_dir,
         cfg.read_only ? database::read_only : database::read_write,
         cfg.state_size, false, cfg.db_map_mode, cfg.db_hugepage_paths ),
diff --git a/libraries/chain/include/eosio/chain/controller.hpp b/libraries/chain/include/eosio/chain/controller.hpp
index 4f96075fabc..b17afd01da5 100644
--- a/libraries/chain/include/eosio/chain/controller.hpp
+++ b/libraries/chain/include/eosio/chain/controller.hpp
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ namespace eosio { namespace chain {
 
    class controller {
       public:
-
          struct config {
             flat_set<account_name>   sender_bypass_whiteblacklist;
             flat_set<account_name>   actor_whitelist;
diff --git a/unittests/misc_tests.cpp b/unittests/misc_tests.cpp
index 6e465674092..7414c8a104b 100644
--- a/unittests/misc_tests.cpp
+++ b/unittests/misc_tests.cpp
@@ -1110,6 +1110,16 @@ BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(stable_priority_queue_test) {
   } FC_LOG_AND_RETHROW()
 }
 
+// test that std::bad_alloc is being thrown
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(bad_alloc_test) {
+   tester t; // force a controller to be constructed and set the new_handler
+   int* ptr = nullptr;
+   const auto fail = [&]() {
+      ptr = new int[std::numeric_limits<int64_t>::max()/16];
+   };
+   BOOST_CHECK_THROW( fail(), std::bad_alloc );
+   BOOST_CHECK( ptr == nullptr );
+}
 
 BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE_END()