diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index 6aa303afa..8c7317968 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@
 
 - General: Update C standard from c99 to gnu99
 - Hash Parser: Improved salt-length checks for generic hash modes
+- HCdict File: Renamed file from hashcat.hcdict to hashcat.hcdict2 and add header because versions are incompatible
+- HCstat File: Renamed file from hashcat.hcstat to hashcat.hcstat2 and add header because versions are incompatible
 - HCstat File: Add code to read LZMA compressed hashcat.hcstat2
 - HCstat File: Add hcstat2 support to enable masks of length up to 256, also adds a filetype header
 - OpenCL Kernels: Added code generator for most of the switch_* functions and replaced existing code
diff --git a/include/dictstat.h b/include/dictstat.h
index fc092c67f..5d059889e 100644
--- a/include/dictstat.h
+++ b/include/dictstat.h
@@ -15,7 +15,10 @@
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <search.h>
 
-#define MAX_DICTSTAT 10000
+#define MAX_DICTSTAT 100000
+
+#define DICTSTAT_FILENAME "hashcat.dictstat2"
+#define DICTSTAT_VERSION  (0x6863646963740000 | 0x0002)
 
 int sort_by_dictstat (const void *s1, const void *s2);
 
diff --git a/src/dictstat.c b/src/dictstat.c
index bc5ab6763..39b321f0b 100644
--- a/src/dictstat.c
+++ b/src/dictstat.c
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 #include "common.h"
 #include "types.h"
 #include "memory.h"
+#include "bitops.h"
 #include "event.h"
 #include "dictstat.h"
 #include "locking.h"
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ int dictstat_init (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx)
   dictstat_ctx->base     = (dictstat_t *) hccalloc (MAX_DICTSTAT, sizeof (dictstat_t));
   dictstat_ctx->cnt      = 0;
 
-  hc_asprintf (&dictstat_ctx->filename, "%s/hashcat.dictstat", folder_config->profile_dir);
+  hc_asprintf (&dictstat_ctx->filename, "%s/%s", folder_config->profile_dir, DICTSTAT_FILENAME);
 
   return 0;
 }
@@ -86,6 +87,40 @@ void dictstat_read (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx)
     return;
   }
 
+  // parse header
+
+  u64 v;
+  u64 z;
+
+  const size_t nread1 = hc_fread (&v, sizeof (u64), 1, fp);
+  const size_t nread2 = hc_fread (&z, sizeof (u64), 1, fp);
+
+  if ((nread1 != 1) || (nread2 != 1))
+  {
+    event_log_error (hashcat_ctx, "%s: Invalid header", dictstat_ctx->filename);
+
+    return;
+  }
+
+  v = byte_swap_64 (v);
+  z = byte_swap_64 (z);
+
+  if (v != DICTSTAT_VERSION)
+  {
+    event_log_error (hashcat_ctx, "%s: Invalid header", dictstat_ctx->filename);
+
+    return;
+  }
+
+  if (z != 0)
+  {
+    event_log_error (hashcat_ctx, "%s: Invalid header", dictstat_ctx->filename);
+
+    return;
+  }
+
+  // parse data
+
   while (!feof (fp))
   {
     dictstat_t d;
@@ -131,6 +166,19 @@ int dictstat_write (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx)
     return -1;
   }
 
+  // header
+
+  u64 v = DICTSTAT_VERSION;
+  u64 z = 0;
+
+  v = byte_swap_64 (v);
+  z = byte_swap_64 (z);
+
+  hc_fwrite (&v, sizeof (u64), 1, fp);
+  hc_fwrite (&z, sizeof (u64), 1, fp);
+
+  // data
+
   hc_fwrite (dictstat_ctx->base, sizeof (dictstat_t), dictstat_ctx->cnt, fp);
 
   fclose (fp);