diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a9f93e780..215caac77 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -43,13 +43,8 @@ on_rtd = os.environ.get('READTHEDOCS')
 
 install_requires = [
     # we are rather picky about msgpack versions, because a good working msgpack is
-    # very important for borg, see https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/issues/3753
-    # as of now, 0.5.6 and 0.6.0 are the only preferred versions of msgpack:
-    'msgpack >=0.5.6, !=0.5.7, !=0.5.8, !=0.5.9, <=0.6.0',
-    # if you can't satisfy the above requirement, these are versions that might
-    # also work ok, IF you make sure to use the COMPILED version of msgpack-python,
-    # NOT the PURE PYTHON fallback implementation: ==0.5.1, ==0.5.4
-    #
+    # very important for borg, see: https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/issues/3753
+    'msgpack >=0.5.6, <=0.6.1',
     # Please note:
     # using any other version is not supported by borg development and
     # any feedback related to issues caused by this will be ignored.
diff --git a/src/borg/helpers/msgpack.py b/src/borg/helpers/msgpack.py
index 70ed940cd..f5593d4e8 100644
--- a/src/borg/helpers/msgpack.py
+++ b/src/borg/helpers/msgpack.py
@@ -75,6 +75,11 @@ def pack(o, stream, *, use_bin_type=False, encoding=None, unicode_errors=None, *
         raise PackException(e)
 
 
+# Note: after requiring msgpack >= 0.6.1 we can remove the max_*_len args and
+#       rely on msgpack auto-computing DoS-safe max values from len(data) for
+#       unpack(data) or from max_buffer_len for Unpacker(max_buffer_len=N).
+#       maybe we can also use that to simplify get_limited_unpacker().
+
 class Unpacker(mp_Unpacker):
     def __init__(self, file_like=None, *, read_size=0, use_list=True, raw=True,
                  object_hook=None, object_pairs_hook=None, list_hook=None,
@@ -172,8 +177,8 @@ def is_slow_msgpack():
 def is_supported_msgpack():
     # DO NOT CHANGE OR REMOVE! See also requirements and comments in setup.py.
     import msgpack
-    return (0, 5, 6) <= msgpack.version <= (0, 6, 0) and \
-           msgpack.version not in [(0, 5, 7), (0, 5, 8), (0, 5, 9)]
+    return (0, 5, 6) <= msgpack.version <= (0, 6, 1) and \
+           msgpack.version not in []  # < blacklist bad releases here
 
 
 def get_limited_unpacker(kind):