diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0db828b..6a214dd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
 - Playwright setup note in the Quick start section of `README.md`.
 
 ### Fixed
+- The act stage now reads the rail bundle file with the same byte cap and
+  symlink refusal as a saved case. The previous read followed a link and
+  accepted a file larger than the child stdout cap.
 - Bootstrap and provenance now refuse a `deps` directory that is a symlink.
   Checkout and later reads followed the link, so a planted `deps` link was
   accepted as the component root.
diff --git a/bin/aas.mjs b/bin/aas.mjs
index 7bef7a7..871a48a 100644
--- a/bin/aas.mjs
+++ b/bin/aas.mjs
@@ -727,7 +727,9 @@ export function runAct(
     }
     if (scratch !== null) {
       try {
-        payload.rail_bundle = JSON.parse(readFileSync(bundlePath, "utf8"));
+        // Same bounds as a saved case file. readFileSync followed a symlink
+        // and accepted a bundle larger than the child stdout cap.
+        payload.rail_bundle = readBoundedCaseJson(bundlePath);
       } catch (error) {
         throw attachChildDiagnostics(
           new Error(`act did not persist a readable rail bundle: ${error.message}`),
diff --git a/test/stack.test.mjs b/test/stack.test.mjs
index 0b74777..0c93dab 100644
--- a/test/stack.test.mjs
+++ b/test/stack.test.mjs
@@ -1251,6 +1251,34 @@ test("runAct persists the rail bundle only when asked", () => {
   assert.equal("rail_bundle" in plain.raw, false);
 });
 
+test("runAct rejects a rail bundle file past the child output cap", () => {
+  const runner = (_bin, args) => {
+    const out = args[args.indexOf("--out") + 1];
+    writeFileSync(out, Buffer.alloc(CHILD_JSON_LIMIT + 1, 0x78));
+    return { status: 0, stdout: '{"outcome":"settled","state":"CLOSED","fault":"none","action_id":"a"}\n', stderr: "", error: null };
+  };
+  assert.throws(
+    () => runAct("none", { depsDir: "deps", runner, persistRailBundle: true }),
+    /byte limit/,
+  );
+});
+
+test("runAct does not follow a symlinked rail bundle file", (t) => {
+  const probe = tempRoot();
+  if (!linkOrSkip(t, join(probe, "missing"), join(probe, "link"))) return;
+  const runner = (_bin, args) => {
+    const out = args[args.indexOf("--out") + 1];
+    const target = join(out, "..", "target.json");
+    writeFileSync(target, JSON.stringify({ action: { action_id: "leaked" }, settlement_receipt: { outcome: "settled" } }));
+    symlinkSync(target, out);
+    return { status: 0, stdout: '{"outcome":"settled","state":"CLOSED","fault":"none","action_id":"a"}\n', stderr: "", error: null };
+  };
+  assert.throws(
+    () => runAct("none", { depsDir: "deps", runner, persistRailBundle: true }),
+    /symbolic link/,
+  );
+});
+
 test("demo rail mode records the review binding and fails closed without a bundle", async () => {
   const outputRoot = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "agent-action-stack-rail-"));
   const bundle = railBundleFixture();