diff --git a/Lib/test/test_bytes.py b/Lib/test/test_bytes.py
index dfd6a1e918a..516d6d9782a 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_bytes.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_bytes.py
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ class BaseBytesTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
         self.assertEqual(self.type2test('0', 'ascii'), b'0')
         self.assertEqual(self.type2test(b'0'), b'0')
+        self.assertRaises(OverflowError, self.type2test, sys.maxsize + 1)
 
     def test_constructor_type_errors(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.type2test, 0.0)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 3c49738e886..b53beab8882 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ What's New in Python 2.7 beta 2?
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #8417: Raise an OverflowError when an integer larger than sys.maxsize is
+  passed to bytearray.
+
 Library
 -------
 
diff --git a/Objects/bytearrayobject.c b/Objects/bytearrayobject.c
index 699dec9d972..61fe8debb92 100644
--- a/Objects/bytearrayobject.c
+++ b/Objects/bytearrayobject.c
@@ -824,14 +824,18 @@ bytearray_init(PyByteArrayObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
     }
 
     /* Is it an int? */
-    count = PyNumber_AsSsize_t(arg, PyExc_ValueError);
-    if (count == -1 && PyErr_Occurred())
-        PyErr_Clear();
-    else {
-        if (count < 0) {
-            PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "negative count");
+    count = PyNumber_AsSsize_t(arg, PyExc_OverflowError);
+    if (count == -1 && PyErr_Occurred()) {
+        if (PyErr_ExceptionMatches(PyExc_OverflowError))
             return -1;
-        }
+        else
+            PyErr_Clear();
+    }
+    else if (count < 0) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "negative count");
+        return -1;
+    }
+    else {
         if (count > 0) {
             if (PyByteArray_Resize((PyObject *)self, count))
                 return -1;