diff --git a/heiFIP/assets/heiFIPPacketImage.cpp b/heiFIP/assets/heiFIPPacketImage.cpp
index d0059fa..28f579e 100644
--- a/heiFIP/assets/heiFIPPacketImage.cpp
+++ b/heiFIP/assets/heiFIPPacketImage.cpp
@@ -222,8 +222,8 @@ class heiFIPPacketImage {
             }
         }
 
-        // 3) If auto_dim is requested, compute dim = ceil(sqrt(length))
-        if (auto_dim) {
+        // 3) If auto_dim is requested or dim is invalid, compute dim = ceil(sqrt(length))
+        if (auto_dim || dim <= 0) {
             dim = static_cast<int>(std::ceil(std::sqrt(static_cast<double>(length))));
         }
 
diff --git a/heiFIP/extractor.cpp b/heiFIP/extractor.cpp
index c493144..00003c0 100644
--- a/heiFIP/extractor.cpp
+++ b/heiFIP/extractor.cpp
@@ -168,6 +168,11 @@ class FIPExtractor {
                 size_t maxImageDim,
                 bool removeDuplicates) 
     {
+        if (image.get_matrix().empty() || image.get_matrix()[0].empty()) {
+            std::cout << "[!] Image not created: empty matrix.\n";
+            return false;
+        }
+
         size_t height = image.get_matrix().size();
         size_t width  = image.get_matrix()[0].size();
 
diff --git a/heiFIP/layers/init.cpp b/heiFIP/layers/init.cpp
index 6894062..1f80a4a 100644
--- a/heiFIP/layers/init.cpp
+++ b/heiFIP/layers/init.cpp
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ class PacketProcessor {
         std::unique_ptr<pcpp::RawPacket> rawPacketPt;
         size_t count = 0;
 
-        while (count < maxCount && reader.getNextPacket(rawPacket)) {
+        while ((maxCount == 0 || count < maxCount) && reader.getNextPacket(rawPacket)) {
             rawPacketPt = std::make_unique<pcpp::RawPacket>(rawPacket);
             std::unique_ptr<FIPPacket> fippkt = preprocess(rawPacketPt, type);