diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
index 89385b69..6154103c 100644
--- a/Changelog.md
+++ b/Changelog.md
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@
 ### Misc Changes
 
 - [#379]: Added tests for attribute value normalization
+- [#379]: Fixed error messages for some variants of `EscapeError`
+  which were incorrectly described as occurring during escaping (rather than unescaping).
 - [#650]: Change the type of `Event::PI` to a new dedicated `BytesPI` type.
 
 [#379]: https://github.com/tafia/quick-xml/pull/379
@@ -293,11 +295,6 @@ serde >= 1.0.181
 - [#565]: Correctly set minimum required version of tokio dependency to 1.10
 - [#565]: Fix compilation error when build with serde <1.0.139
 
-
-### New Tests
-
-- [#379]: Added tests for attribute value normalization
-
 [externally tagged]: https://serde.rs/enum-representations.html#externally-tagged
 [#490]: https://github.com/tafia/quick-xml/pull/490
 [#510]: https://github.com/tafia/quick-xml/issues/510
diff --git a/src/escape.rs b/src/escape.rs
index 3d65dacc..6f1305e4 100644
--- a/src/escape.rs
+++ b/src/escape.rs
@@ -27,6 +27,12 @@ pub enum EscapeError {
     InvalidDecimal(char),
     /// Not a valid unicode codepoint
     InvalidCodepoint(u32),
+    /// The recursion limit was reached while attempting to unescape XML entities,
+    /// or normalize an attribute value. This could indicate an entity loop.
+    ///
+    /// Limiting recursion prevents Denial-of-Service type attacks
+    /// such as the "billion laughs" [attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs_attack).
+    ReachedRecursionLimit(Range<usize>),
 }
 
 impl std::fmt::Display for EscapeError {
@@ -34,17 +40,17 @@ impl std::fmt::Display for EscapeError {
         match self {
             EscapeError::EntityWithNull(e) => write!(
                 f,
-                "Error while escaping character at range {:?}: Null character entity not allowed",
+                "Error while unescaping character at range {:?}: Null character entity not allowed",
                 e
             ),
             EscapeError::UnrecognizedSymbol(rge, res) => write!(
                 f,
-                "Error while escaping character at range {:?}: Unrecognized escape symbol: {:?}",
+                "Error while unescaping character at range {:?}: Unrecognized escape symbol: {:?}",
                 rge, res
             ),
             EscapeError::UnterminatedEntity(e) => write!(
                 f,
-                "Error while escaping character at range {:?}: Cannot find ';' after '&'",
+                "Error while unescaping character at range {:?}: Cannot find ';' after '&'",
                 e
             ),
             EscapeError::TooLongHexadecimal => write!(f, "Cannot convert hexadecimal to utf8"),
@@ -54,6 +60,10 @@ impl std::fmt::Display for EscapeError {
             EscapeError::TooLongDecimal => write!(f, "Cannot convert decimal to utf8"),
             EscapeError::InvalidDecimal(e) => write!(f, "'{}' is not a valid decimal character", e),
             EscapeError::InvalidCodepoint(n) => write!(f, "'{}' is not a valid codepoint", n),
+            EscapeError::ReachedRecursionLimit(e) => write!(
+                f,
+                "Error while unescaping entity at range {:?}: Recursion limit reached"
+            ),
         }
     }
 }
@@ -310,7 +320,7 @@ where
     let mut iter = bytes.iter();
 
     if let Some(i) = iter.position(is_normalization_char) {
-        let mut normalized = String::new();
+        let mut normalized = String::with_capacity(value.len());
         let pos = normalize_step(
             &mut normalized,
             &mut iter,
@@ -405,7 +415,7 @@ where
             let pat = &input[start..end];
             // 1. For a character reference, append the referenced character
             //    to the normalized value.
-            if pat.starts_with('#') {
+            if let Some(entity) = pat.strip_prefix('#') {
                 let entity = &pat[1..]; // starts after the #
                 let codepoint = parse_number(entity, start..end)?;
                 normalized.push_str(codepoint.encode_utf8(&mut [0u8; 4]));
@@ -432,6 +442,7 @@ where
             Ok(index + 1) // +1 - skip character
         }
 
+        // SAFETY: We call normalize_step only when is_normalization_char() return true
         _ => unreachable!("Only '\\t', '\\n', '\\r', ' ', and '&' are possible here"),
     }
 }
@@ -2160,14 +2171,14 @@ mod normalization {
     fn unclosed_entity() {
         assert_eq!(
             normalize_attribute_value("string with unclosed &entity reference", |_| {
-                //     0                    ^ = 21           ^ = 38
+                //                     0                    ^ = 21           ^ = 38
                 Some("replacement")
             }),
             Err(EscapeError::UnterminatedEntity(21..38))
         );
         assert_eq!(
             normalize_attribute_value("string with unclosed &#32 (character) reference", |_| {
-                //     0                    ^ = 21                    ^ = 47
+                //                     0                    ^ = 21                    ^ = 47
                 None
             }),
             Err(EscapeError::UnterminatedEntity(21..47))
@@ -2178,7 +2189,7 @@ mod normalization {
     fn unknown_entity() {
         assert_eq!(
             normalize_attribute_value("string with unknown &entity; reference", |_| { None }),
-            //         0                    ^     ^ = 21..27
+            //                         0                    ^ 21  ^ 27
             Err(EscapeError::UnrecognizedSymbol(
                 21..27,
                 "entity".to_string()
diff --git a/src/events/attributes.rs b/src/events/attributes.rs
index 274107da..8516e6d0 100644
--- a/src/events/attributes.rs
+++ b/src/events/attributes.rs
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@
 //! Provides an iterator over attributes key/value pairs
 
 use crate::errors::Result as XmlResult;
-use crate::escape::{self, escape, resolve_predefined_entity, unescape_with};
 #[cfg(any(doc, not(feature = "encoding")))]
 use crate::escape::EscapeError;
+use crate::escape::{self, escape, resolve_predefined_entity, unescape_with};
 use crate::name::QName;
 use crate::reader::{is_whitespace, Reader};
 use crate::utils::{write_byte_string, write_cow_string, Bytes};
@@ -967,6 +967,45 @@ mod xml {
             );
         }
 
+        /// An obvious loop should be detected immediately
+        #[test]
+        #[ignore]
+        fn test_entity_loop() {
+            let raw_value = "&d;".as_bytes();
+            let attr = Attribute::from(("foo".as_bytes(), raw_value));
+            fn custom_resolver(ent: &str) -> Option<&'static str> {
+                match ent {
+                    "d" => Some("&d;"),
+                }
+            }
+            assert_eq!(
+                attr.normalized_value_with(&custom_resolver),
+                Err(EscapeError::ReachedRecursionLimit(1..2))
+            );
+        }
+
+        /// A more complex entity loop should hit the recursion limit.
+        #[test]
+        #[ignore]
+        fn test_recursion_limit() {
+            let raw_value = "&a;".as_bytes();
+            let attr = Attribute::from(("foo".as_bytes(), raw_value));
+            fn custom_resolver(ent: &str) -> Option<&'static str> {
+                match ent {
+                    "a" => Some("&b;"),
+                    "b" => Some("&c;"),
+                    "c" => Some("&d;"),
+                    "d" => Some("&e;"),
+                    "e" => Some("&f;"),
+                    "f" => Some("&a;"),
+                }
+            }
+            assert_eq!(
+                attr.normalized_value_with(&custom_resolver),
+                Err(EscapeError::ReachedRecursionLimit(1..2))
+            );
+        }
+
         #[test]
         fn test_char_references() {
             // character literal references are substituted without being replaced by spaces