diff --git a/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap.go b/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap.go
index 481724793e..febf20be02 100644
--- a/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap.go
+++ b/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap.go
@@ -125,8 +125,11 @@ func ReadConfig(src map[string]string) config.Configuration {
 		delete(conf, luaSharedDictsKey)
 		lsd := splitAndTrimSpace(val, ",")
 		for _, v := range lsd {
-			v = strings.ReplaceAll(v, " ", "")
-			results := strings.SplitN(v, ":", 2)
+			results := strings.SplitN(strings.ReplaceAll(v, " ", ""), ":", 2)
+			if len(results) != 2 {
+				klog.Errorf("Ignoring poorly formatted Lua dictionary %v", v)
+				continue
+			}
 			dictName := results[0]
 			size := dictStrToKb(results[1])
 			if size < 0 {
diff --git a/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap_test.go b/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap_test.go
index dad8416942..6c7468303b 100644
--- a/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap_test.go
+++ b/internal/ingress/controller/template/configmap_test.go
@@ -390,6 +390,11 @@ func TestLuaSharedDictsParsing(t *testing.T) {
 			entry:  map[string]string{"lua-shared-dicts": "configuration_data:   10, my_random_dict:15 ,   another_example:2"},
 			expect: map[string]int{"configuration_data": 10240, "my_random_dict": 15360, "another_example": 2048},
 		},
+		{
+			name:   "invalid format",
+			entry:  map[string]string{"lua-shared-dicts": "mydict: 10, invalid_dict 100"},
+			expect: map[string]int{"mydict": 10240},
+		},
 		{
 			name:   "invalid size value should be ignored",
 			entry:  map[string]string{"lua-shared-dicts": "mydict: 10, invalid_dict: 1a, bad_mb_dict:10mb"},