diff --git a/app.js b/app.js
index 8eb575c92..c3785dfaf 100755
--- a/app.js
+++ b/app.js
@@ -102,9 +102,14 @@ function compile(req, res) {
             );
         var stdout = "";
         var stderr = "";
+        var timeout = setTimeout(function() {
+            child.kill();
+            stderr += "\nKilled - processing time exceeded";
+        }, props.get("gcc-explorer", "compileTimeoutMs", 100));
         child.stdout.on('data', function (data) { stdout += data; });
         child.stderr.on('data', function (data) { stderr += data; });
         child.on('exit', function (code) {
+            clearTimeout(timeout);
             child_process.exec('cat "' + outputFilename + '" | c++filt', function(err, filt_stdout, filt_stderr) {
                 var data = filt_stdout;
                 if (err) {
diff --git a/etc/config/gcc-explorer.defaults.properties b/etc/config/gcc-explorer.defaults.properties
index c42488d5f..55f67d38e 100644
--- a/etc/config/gcc-explorer.defaults.properties
+++ b/etc/config/gcc-explorer.defaults.properties
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 port=10240
+compileTimeoutMs=200
 compilers=/usr/bin/g++-4.4:/usr/bin/g++-4.5:/usr/bin/g++-4.6:/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-g++-4.5