diff --git a/src/libutil-tests/meson.build b/src/libutil-tests/meson.build
index eb4844ef37b..bcc9a607a17 100644
--- a/src/libutil-tests/meson.build
+++ b/src/libutil-tests/meson.build
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ sources = files(
   'position.cc',
   'processes.cc',
   'ref.cc',
+  'serialise.cc',
   'sort.cc',
   'source-accessor.cc',
   'spawn.cc',
diff --git a/src/libutil-tests/serialise.cc b/src/libutil-tests/serialise.cc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..13b285e2b44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/libutil-tests/serialise.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#include "nix/util/serialise.hh"
+
+#include <gtest/gtest.h>
+
+namespace nix {
+
+template<typename T>
+    requires std::is_integral_v<T>
+auto makeNumSource(T num)
+{
+    return sinkToSource([num](Sink & writer) { writer << num; });
+}
+
+TEST(readNum, negativeValuesSerialiseWellDefined)
+{
+    EXPECT_THROW(readNum<uint32_t>(*makeNumSource(int64_t(-1))), SerialisationError);
+    EXPECT_THROW(readNum<int64_t>(*makeNumSource(int16_t(-1))), SerialisationError);
+    EXPECT_EQ(readNum<uint64_t>(*makeNumSource(int64_t(-1))), std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max());
+    EXPECT_EQ(readNum<uint64_t>(*makeNumSource(int64_t(-2))), std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max() - 1);
+    /* The result doesn't depend on the source type - only the destination matters. */
+    EXPECT_EQ(readNum<uint64_t>(*makeNumSource(int32_t(-1))), std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max());
+    EXPECT_EQ(readNum<uint64_t>(*makeNumSource(int16_t(-1))), std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::max());
+}
+
+} // namespace nix
diff --git a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/serialise.hh b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/serialise.hh
index 9a155aa9738..f8b545f49b9 100644
--- a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/serialise.hh
+++ b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/serialise.hh
@@ -521,6 +521,27 @@ sinkToSource(fun<void(Sink &)> writer, fun<void()> eof = []() { throw EndOfFile(
 void writePadding(size_t len, Sink & sink);
 void writeString(std::string_view s, Sink & sink);
 
+/**
+ * Write a serialisation of an integer to the sink in little endian order.
+ *
+ * Types other than uint64_t (including signed types) get implicitly converted to uint64_t.A
+ *
+ * Negative number to unsigned conversion is actually well-defined in C++:
+ *
+ * [n4950] 7.3.9 Integral conversions:
+ * the result is the unique value of the destination type that is congruent to the source integer
+ * modulo 2^N, where N is the width of the destination type.
+ *
+ * [n4950] 6.8.2 Fundamental types:
+ * An unsigned integer type has the same object representation, value
+ * representation, and alignment requirements (6.7.6) as the corresponding signed
+ * integer type. For each value x of a signed integer type, the value of the
+ * corresponding unsigned integer type congruent to x modulo 2 N has the same value
+ * of corresponding bits in its value representation.
+ * This is also known as two's complement representation.
+ *
+ * @todo Should we even allow negative values to get serialised?
+ */
 inline Sink & operator<<(Sink & sink, uint64_t n)
 {
     unsigned char buf[8];
diff --git a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/util.hh b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/util.hh
index adbb9e19ad1..144c83cc0c9 100644
--- a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/util.hh
+++ b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/util.hh
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 #include <functional>
 #include <map>
 #include <sstream>
+#include <bit>
 #include <optional>
 #include <ranges>
 
@@ -175,8 +176,25 @@ template<typename T>
 T readLittleEndian(unsigned char * p)
 {
     T x = 0;
-    for (size_t i = 0; i < sizeof(x); ++i, ++p) {
-        x |= ((T) *p) << (i * 8);
+    /* Byte types such as char/unsigned char/std::byte are a bit special because
+       they are allowed to alias anything else. Thus a raw loop iterating
+       over the bytes here would be quite inefficient and iterate byte-by-byte
+       (the compiler cannot optimise anything because the pointer might alias
+       something). Use a memcpy + byteswap here as needed. */
+    std::memcpy(&x, p, sizeof(T));
+    /* Don't need to do anything if we are not on a big endian machine. */
+    if constexpr (std::endian::native != std::endian::little) {
+        if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, uint64_t>) {
+            x = __builtin_bswap64(x);
+        } else if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, uint32_t>) {
+            x = __builtin_bswap32(x);
+        } else if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, uint16_t>) {
+            x = __builtin_bswap16(x);
+        } else {
+            /* Signed types don't make their way here. Though it would be fine
+               since C++20 mandates 2's complement representation. */
+            static_assert(false);
+        }
     }
     return x;
 }