diff --git a/src/linux/init/WSLAInit.cpp b/src/linux/init/WSLAInit.cpp
index 5999469..d757de0 100644
--- a/src/linux/init/WSLAInit.cpp
+++ b/src/linux/init/WSLAInit.cpp
@@ -637,7 +637,20 @@ int WSLAEntryPoint(int Argc, char* Argv[])
         g_LogFd = 3;
     }
 
+    //
+    // Increase the soft and hard limit for number of open file descriptors.
+    // N.B. the soft limit shouldn't be too high. See https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/12985 .
+    //
+
     rlimit Limit{};
+    Limit.rlim_cur = 1024 * 10;
+    Limit.rlim_max = 1024 * 1024;
+    if (setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &Limit) < 0)
+    {
+        LOG_ERROR("setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE) failed {}", errno);
+        return -1;
+    }
+
     Limit.rlim_cur = 0x4000000;
     Limit.rlim_max = 0x4000000;
     if (setrlimit(RLIMIT_MEMLOCK, &Limit) < 0)