diff --git a/internal/backend/http_transport.go b/internal/backend/http_transport.go
index 354611e07..09eb3cf16 100644
--- a/internal/backend/http_transport.go
+++ b/internal/backend/http_transport.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/peterbourgon/unixtransport"
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/debug"
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/errors"
+	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/feature"
 	"golang.org/x/net/http2"
 )
 
@@ -130,6 +131,11 @@ func Transport(opts TransportOptions) (http.RoundTripper, error) {
 		tr.TLSClientConfig.RootCAs = pool
 	}
 
+	rt := http.RoundTripper(tr)
+	if feature.Flag.Enabled(feature.HTTPTimeouts) {
+		rt = newWatchdogRoundtripper(rt, 120*time.Second, 128*1024)
+	}
+
 	// wrap in the debug round tripper (if active)
-	return debug.RoundTripper(tr), nil
+	return debug.RoundTripper(rt), nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/backend/watchdog_roundtriper.go b/internal/backend/watchdog_roundtriper.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fb7863002
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/backend/watchdog_roundtriper.go
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+package backend
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"io"
+	"net/http"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// watchdogRoundtripper cancels an http request if an upload or download did not make progress
+// within timeout. The time between fully sending the request and receiving an response is also
+// limited by this timeout. This ensures that stuck requests are cancelled after some time.
+//
+// The roundtriper makes the assumption that the upload and download happen continuously. In particular,
+// the caller must not make long pauses between individual read requests from the response body.
+type watchdogRoundtripper struct {
+	rt        http.RoundTripper
+	timeout   time.Duration
+	chunkSize int
+}
+
+var _ http.RoundTripper = &watchdogRoundtripper{}
+
+func newWatchdogRoundtripper(rt http.RoundTripper, timeout time.Duration, chunkSize int) *watchdogRoundtripper {
+	return &watchdogRoundtripper{
+		rt:        rt,
+		timeout:   timeout,
+		chunkSize: chunkSize,
+	}
+}
+
+func (w *watchdogRoundtripper) RoundTrip(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
+	timer := time.NewTimer(w.timeout)
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(req.Context())
+
+	// cancel context if timer expires
+	go func() {
+		defer timer.Stop()
+		select {
+		case <-timer.C:
+			cancel()
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+		}
+	}()
+
+	kick := func() {
+		timer.Reset(w.timeout)
+	}
+
+	req = req.Clone(ctx)
+	if req.Body != nil {
+		// kick watchdog timer as long as uploading makes progress
+		req.Body = newWatchdogReadCloser(req.Body, w.chunkSize, kick, nil)
+	}
+
+	resp, err := w.rt.RoundTrip(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	// kick watchdog timer as long as downloading makes progress
+	// cancel context to stop goroutine once response body is closed
+	resp.Body = newWatchdogReadCloser(resp.Body, w.chunkSize, kick, cancel)
+	return resp, nil
+}
+
+func newWatchdogReadCloser(rc io.ReadCloser, chunkSize int, kick func(), close func()) *watchdogReadCloser {
+	return &watchdogReadCloser{
+		rc:        rc,
+		chunkSize: chunkSize,
+		kick:      kick,
+		close:     close,
+	}
+}
+
+type watchdogReadCloser struct {
+	rc        io.ReadCloser
+	chunkSize int
+	kick      func()
+	close     func()
+}
+
+var _ io.ReadCloser = &watchdogReadCloser{}
+
+func (w *watchdogReadCloser) Read(p []byte) (n int, err error) {
+	w.kick()
+
+	// Read is not required to fill the whole passed in byte slice
+	// Thus, keep things simple and just stay within our chunkSize.
+	if len(p) > w.chunkSize {
+		p = p[:w.chunkSize]
+	}
+	n, err = w.rc.Read(p)
+	w.kick()
+
+	return n, err
+}
+
+func (w *watchdogReadCloser) Close() error {
+	if w.close != nil {
+		w.close()
+	}
+	return w.rc.Close()
+}
diff --git a/internal/feature/registry.go b/internal/feature/registry.go
index 2d2e45edf..b0e4d2ed7 100644
--- a/internal/feature/registry.go
+++ b/internal/feature/registry.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ const (
 	DeprecateLegacyIndex    FlagName = "deprecate-legacy-index"
 	DeprecateS3LegacyLayout FlagName = "deprecate-s3-legacy-layout"
 	DeviceIDForHardlinks    FlagName = "device-id-for-hardlinks"
+	HTTPTimeouts            FlagName = "http-timeouts"
 )
 
 func init() {
@@ -15,5 +16,6 @@ func init() {
 		DeprecateLegacyIndex:    {Type: Beta, Description: "disable support for index format used by restic 0.1.0. Use `restic repair index` to update the index if necessary."},
 		DeprecateS3LegacyLayout: {Type: Beta, Description: "disable support for S3 legacy layout used up to restic 0.7.0. Use `RESTIC_FEATURES=deprecate-s3-legacy-layout=false restic migrate s3_layout` to migrate your S3 repository if necessary."},
 		DeviceIDForHardlinks:    {Type: Alpha, Description: "store deviceID only for hardlinks to reduce metadata changes for example when using btrfs subvolumes. Will be removed in a future restic version after repository format 3 is available"},
+		HTTPTimeouts:            {Type: Beta, Description: "enforce timeouts for stuck HTTP requests."},
 	})
 }