diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 146cdffdd..fb6668346 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ Zhenye Xie <xiezhenye at gmail.com>
 
 Barracuda Networks, Inc.
 Counting Ltd.
+GitHub Inc.
 Google Inc.
 InfoSum Ltd.
 Keybase Inc.
diff --git a/conncheck.go b/conncheck.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fa868e84d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conncheck.go
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+// Go MySQL Driver - A MySQL-Driver for Go's database/sql package
+//
+// Copyright 2019 The Go-MySQL-Driver Authors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+// License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file,
+// You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+
+// +build !windows
+
+package mysql
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"io"
+	"net"
+	"syscall"
+)
+
+var errUnexpectedRead = errors.New("unexpected read from socket")
+
+func connCheck(c net.Conn) error {
+	var (
+		n    int
+		err  error
+		buff [1]byte
+	)
+
+	sconn, ok := c.(syscall.Conn)
+	if !ok {
+		return nil
+	}
+	rc, err := sconn.SyscallConn()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	rerr := rc.Read(func(fd uintptr) bool {
+		n, err = syscall.Read(int(fd), buff[:])
+		return true
+	})
+	switch {
+	case rerr != nil:
+		return rerr
+	case n == 0 && err == nil:
+		return io.EOF
+	case n > 0:
+		return errUnexpectedRead
+	case err == syscall.EAGAIN || err == syscall.EWOULDBLOCK:
+		return nil
+	default:
+		return err
+	}
+}
diff --git a/conncheck_test.go b/conncheck_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b7234b0f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conncheck_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+// Go MySQL Driver - A MySQL-Driver for Go's database/sql package
+//
+// Copyright 2013 The Go-MySQL-Driver Authors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+// License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file,
+// You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+
+// +build go1.10,!windows
+
+package mysql
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+func TestStaleConnectionChecks(t *testing.T) {
+	runTests(t, dsn, func(dbt *DBTest) {
+		dbt.mustExec("SET @@SESSION.wait_timeout = 2")
+
+		if err := dbt.db.Ping(); err != nil {
+			dbt.Fatal(err)
+		}
+
+		// wait for MySQL to close our connection
+		time.Sleep(3 * time.Second)
+
+		tx, err := dbt.db.Begin()
+		if err != nil {
+			dbt.Fatal(err)
+		}
+
+		if err := tx.Rollback(); err != nil {
+			dbt.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	})
+}
diff --git a/conncheck_windows.go b/conncheck_windows.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3d9e63f66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conncheck_windows.go
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package mysql
+
+// Go MySQL Driver - A MySQL-Driver for Go's database/sql package
+//
+// Copyright 2019 The Go-MySQL-Driver Authors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+// License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file,
+// You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+
+import "net"
+
+func connCheck(c net.Conn) error {
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/connection.go b/connection.go
index fc4ec7597..265fd4e47 100644
--- a/connection.go
+++ b/connection.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import (
 type mysqlConn struct {
 	buf              buffer
 	netConn          net.Conn
+	rawConn          net.Conn // underlying connection when netConn is TLS connection.
 	affectedRows     uint64
 	insertId         uint64
 	cfg              *Config
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ type mysqlConn struct {
 	status           statusFlag
 	sequence         uint8
 	parseTime        bool
+	reset            bool // set when the Go SQL package calls ResetSession
 
 	// for context support (Go 1.8+)
 	watching bool
@@ -639,5 +641,6 @@ func (mc *mysqlConn) ResetSession(ctx context.Context) error {
 	if mc.closed.IsSet() {
 		return driver.ErrBadConn
 	}
+	mc.reset = true
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/packets.go b/packets.go
index 5e0853767..70d0d71f5 100644
--- a/packets.go
+++ b/packets.go
@@ -96,6 +96,25 @@ func (mc *mysqlConn) writePacket(data []byte) error {
 		return ErrPktTooLarge
 	}
 
+	// Perform a stale connection check. We only perform this check for
+	// the first query on a connection that has been checked out of the
+	// connection pool: a fresh connection from the pool is more likely
+	// to be stale, and it has not performed any previous writes that
+	// could cause data corruption, so it's safe to return ErrBadConn
+	// if the check fails.
+	if mc.reset {
+		mc.reset = false
+		conn := mc.netConn
+		if mc.rawConn != nil {
+			conn = mc.rawConn
+		}
+		if err := connCheck(conn); err != nil {
+			errLog.Print("closing bad idle connection: ", err)
+			mc.Close()
+			return driver.ErrBadConn
+		}
+	}
+
 	for {
 		var size int
 		if pktLen >= maxPacketSize {
@@ -332,6 +351,7 @@ func (mc *mysqlConn) writeHandshakeResponsePacket(authResp []byte, plugin string
 		if err := tlsConn.Handshake(); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		mc.rawConn = mc.netConn
 		mc.netConn = tlsConn
 		mc.buf.nc = tlsConn
 	}