diff --git a/app/uploaders/base_uploader.rb b/app/uploaders/base_uploader.rb
index 8fe367e5e..708943b9a 100644
--- a/app/uploaders/base_uploader.rb
+++ b/app/uploaders/base_uploader.rb
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ class BaseUploader < CarrierWave::Uploader::Base
   include CarrierWave::BombShelter # limits size to 4096x4096
   include CarrierWave::MiniMagick # adds processing operations
 
+  FRAME_MAX = 1000
+  FRAME_STRIP_MAX = 150
+
+  process :validate_frame_count
   process :strip_exif
 
   def store_dir
@@ -22,9 +26,19 @@ class BaseUploader < CarrierWave::Uploader::Base
   # strip EXIF (and GPS) data
   def strip_exif
     manipulate! do |image|
-      image.strip
+      image.strip unless image.frames.count > FRAME_STRIP_MAX
       image = yield(image) if block_given?
       image
     end
   end
+
+  def validate_frame_count
+    begin
+      return unless MiniMagick::Image.new(file.path).frames.count > FRAME_MAX
+    rescue Timeout::Error
+      raise CarrierWave::IntegrityError, "Image processing timed out."
+    end
+
+    raise CarrierWave::IntegrityError, "GIF contains too many frames. Max frame count allowed is #{FRAME_MAX}."
+  end
 end
diff --git a/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb b/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb
index d973f06fb..be3154031 100644
--- a/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/carrierwave.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+require "mini_magick"
+
+# Carrierwave uses MiniMagick for image processing. To prevent server timeouts
+# we are setting the MiniMagick timeout lower.
+MiniMagick.configure do |config|
+  config.timeout = 10
+end
+
 CarrierWave.configure do |config|
   if Rails.env.test?
     config.storage = :file
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/files/high_frame_count.gif b/spec/fixtures/files/high_frame_count.gif
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b36b58a64
Binary files /dev/null and b/spec/fixtures/files/high_frame_count.gif differ
diff --git a/spec/uploaders/article_image_uploader_spec.rb b/spec/uploaders/article_image_uploader_spec.rb
index 08a846fea..e44f7848f 100644
--- a/spec/uploaders/article_image_uploader_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/uploaders/article_image_uploader_spec.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ describe ArticleImageUploader, type: :uploader do
   let_it_be(:image_png) { fixture_file_upload("files/800x600.png", "image/png") }
   let_it_be(:image_webp) { fixture_file_upload("files/800x600.webp", "image/webp") }
   let_it_be(:image_with_gps) { fixture_file_upload("files/image_gps_data.jpg", "image/jpeg") }
+  let_it_be(:high_frame_count) { fixture_file_upload("files/high_frame_count.gif", "image/gif") }
 
   # we need a new uploader before each test, and since the uploader is not a model
   # we can recreate it quickly in memory with `let!`
@@ -59,13 +60,36 @@ describe ArticleImageUploader, type: :uploader do
     end
   end
 
+  describe "frame validation" do
+    it "raises an error if frame count is > FRAME_MAX" do
+      stub_const("BaseUploader::FRAME_MAX", 20)
+
+      expect { uploader.store!(high_frame_count) }.to raise_error(CarrierWave::IntegrityError, /too many frames/)
+    end
+
+    it "raises a CarrierWave error which can be parsed if MiniMagick timeout occurs" do
+      allow(MiniMagick::Image).to receive(:new).and_raise(TimeoutError)
+
+      expect { uploader.store!(image_jpg) }.to raise_error(CarrierWave::IntegrityError, /Image processing timed out/)
+    end
+  end
+
   describe "exif removal" do
-    it "removes EXIF and GPS data on upload" do
+    it "removes EXIF and GPS data on single frame image upload" do
       expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(image_with_gps.path).exif?).to be(true)
       expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(image_with_gps.path).gps.present?).to be(true)
       uploader.store!(image_with_gps)
       expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(uploader.file.path).exif?).to be(false)
       expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(uploader.file.path).gps.present?).to be(false)
     end
+
+    it "does NOT remove EXIF and GPS data if frame count is > FRAME_STRIP_MAX" do
+      stub_const("BaseUploader::FRAME_STRIP_MAX", 0)
+      expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(image_with_gps.path).exif?).to be(true)
+      expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(image_with_gps.path).gps.present?).to be(true)
+      uploader.store!(image_with_gps)
+      expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(uploader.file.path).exif?).to be(true)
+      expect(EXIFR::JPEG.new(uploader.file.path).gps.present?).to be(true)
+    end
   end
 end