diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 697cef18..240ed6dd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -75,9 +75,13 @@ with safe_open("model.safetensors", framework="pt", device="cpu") as f:
 
 ### Format
 
-- 8 bytes: `N`, a u64 int, containing the size of the header
-- N bytes: a JSON utf-8 string representing the header.
-  - The header is a dict like `{"TENSOR_NAME": {"dtype": "F16", "shape": [1, 16, 256], "data_offsets": [BEGIN, END]}, "NEXT_TENSOR_NAME": {...}, ...}`, where offsets point to the tensor data relative to the beginning of the byte buffer, with `BEGIN` as the starting offset and `END` as the one-past offset (so total tensor byte size = `END - BEGIN`).
+- 8 bytes: `N`, an unsigned little-endian 64-bit integer, containing the size of the header
+- N bytes: a JSON UTF-8 string representing the header.
+  - The header data MUST begin with a `{` character (0x7B).
+  - The header data MAY be trailing padded with whitespace (0x20).
+  - The header is a dict like `{"TENSOR_NAME": {"dtype": "F16", "shape": [1, 16, 256], "data_offsets": [BEGIN, END]}, "NEXT_TENSOR_NAME": {...}, ...}`,
+    - `data_offsets` point to the tensor data relative to the beginning of the byte buffer (i.e. not an absolute position in the file),
+      with `BEGIN` as the starting offset and `END` as the one-past offset (so total tensor byte size = `END - BEGIN`).
   - A special key `__metadata__` is allowed to contain free form string-to-string map. Arbitrary JSON is not allowed, all values must be strings.
 - Rest of the file: byte-buffer.
 
diff --git a/safetensors/README.md b/safetensors/README.md
index 697cef18..240ed6dd 100644
--- a/safetensors/README.md
+++ b/safetensors/README.md
@@ -75,9 +75,13 @@ with safe_open("model.safetensors", framework="pt", device="cpu") as f:
 
 ### Format
 
-- 8 bytes: `N`, a u64 int, containing the size of the header
-- N bytes: a JSON utf-8 string representing the header.
-  - The header is a dict like `{"TENSOR_NAME": {"dtype": "F16", "shape": [1, 16, 256], "data_offsets": [BEGIN, END]}, "NEXT_TENSOR_NAME": {...}, ...}`, where offsets point to the tensor data relative to the beginning of the byte buffer, with `BEGIN` as the starting offset and `END` as the one-past offset (so total tensor byte size = `END - BEGIN`).
+- 8 bytes: `N`, an unsigned little-endian 64-bit integer, containing the size of the header
+- N bytes: a JSON UTF-8 string representing the header.
+  - The header data MUST begin with a `{` character (0x7B).
+  - The header data MAY be trailing padded with whitespace (0x20).
+  - The header is a dict like `{"TENSOR_NAME": {"dtype": "F16", "shape": [1, 16, 256], "data_offsets": [BEGIN, END]}, "NEXT_TENSOR_NAME": {...}, ...}`,
+    - `data_offsets` point to the tensor data relative to the beginning of the byte buffer (i.e. not an absolute position in the file),
+      with `BEGIN` as the starting offset and `END` as the one-past offset (so total tensor byte size = `END - BEGIN`).
   - A special key `__metadata__` is allowed to contain free form string-to-string map. Arbitrary JSON is not allowed, all values must be strings.
 - Rest of the file: byte-buffer.
 
diff --git a/safetensors/src/lib.rs b/safetensors/src/lib.rs
index a66b1e7a..6a3fe70c 100644
--- a/safetensors/src/lib.rs
+++ b/safetensors/src/lib.rs
@@ -52,9 +52,13 @@
 //!
 //!## Format
 //!
-//! - 8 bytes: `N`, a u64 int, containing the size of the header
-//! - N bytes: a JSON utf-8 string representing the header.
-//!   - The header is a dict like `{"TENSOR_NAME": {"dtype": "F16", "shape": [1, 16, 256], "data_offsets": [BEGIN, END]}, "NEXT_TENSOR_NAME": {...}, ...}`, where offsets point to the tensor data relative to the beginning of the byte buffer, with `BEGIN` as the starting offset and `END` as the one-past offset (so total tensor byte size = `END - BEGIN`).
+//! - 8 bytes: `N`, an unsigned little-endian 64-bit integer, containing the size of the header
+//! - N bytes: a JSON UTF-8 string representing the header.
+//!   - The header data MUST begin with a `{` character (0x7B).
+//!   - The header data MAY be trailing padded with whitespace (0x20).
+//!   - The header is a dict like `{"TENSOR_NAME": {"dtype": "F16", "shape": [1, 16, 256], "data_offsets": [BEGIN, END]}, "NEXT_TENSOR_NAME": {...}, ...}`,
+//!     - `data_offsets` point to the tensor data relative to the beginning of the byte buffer (i.e. not an absolute position in the file),
+//!       with `BEGIN` as the starting offset and `END` as the one-past offset (so total tensor byte size = `END - BEGIN`).
 //!   - A special key `__metadata__` is allowed to contain free form string-to-string map. Arbitrary JSON is not allowed, all values must be strings.
 //! - Rest of the file: byte-buffer.
 //!
diff --git a/safetensors/src/tensor.rs b/safetensors/src/tensor.rs
index a2c2dce2..a05f49a0 100644
--- a/safetensors/src/tensor.rs
+++ b/safetensors/src/tensor.rs
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ const MAX_HEADER_SIZE: usize = 100_000_000;
 pub enum SafeTensorError {
     /// The header is an invalid UTF-8 string and cannot be read.
     InvalidHeader,
+    /// The header's first byte is not the expected `{`.
+    InvalidHeaderStart,
     /// The header does contain a valid string, but it is not valid JSON.
     InvalidHeaderDeserialization,
     /// The header is large than 100Mo which is considered too large (Might evolve in the future).
@@ -302,6 +304,10 @@ impl<'data> SafeTensors<'data> {
         }
         let string =
             std::str::from_utf8(&buffer[8..stop]).map_err(|_| SafeTensorError::InvalidHeader)?;
+        // Assert the string starts with {
+        if !string.starts_with('{') {
+            return Err(SafeTensorError::InvalidHeaderStart);
+        }
         let metadata: Metadata = serde_json::from_str(string)
             .map_err(|_| SafeTensorError::InvalidHeaderDeserialization)?;
         let buffer_end = metadata.validate()?;
@@ -1087,6 +1093,25 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    /// Test that the JSON header may be trailing-padded with JSON whitespace characters.
+    fn test_whitespace_padded_header() {
+        let serialized = b"\x06\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00{}\x0D\x20\x09\x0A";
+        let loaded = SafeTensors::deserialize(serialized).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(loaded.len(), 0);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    /// Test that the JSON header must begin with a `{` character.
+    fn test_whitespace_start_padded_header_is_not_allowed() {
+        let serialized = b"\x06\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x09\x0A{}\x0D\x20";
+        match SafeTensors::deserialize(serialized) {
+            Err(SafeTensorError::InvalidHeaderStart) => {
+                // Correct error
+            },
+            _ => panic!("This should not be able to be deserialized"),
+        }
+    }
     #[test]
     fn test_zero_sized_tensor() {
         let serialized = b"<\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00{\"test\":{\"dtype\":\"I32\",\"shape\":[2,0],\"data_offsets\":[0, 0]}}";