diff --git a/src/Composer/Factory.php b/src/Composer/Factory.php
index 22bae3667..e27976a4b 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Factory.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Factory.php
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ namespace Composer;
 use Composer\Json\JsonFile;
 use Composer\IO\IOInterface;
 use Composer\Repository\RepositoryManager;
+use Composer\Util\ProcessExecutor;
 
 /**
  * Creates an configured instance of composer.
@@ -67,6 +68,11 @@ class Factory
         }
         $binDir = getenv('COMPOSER_BIN_DIR') ?: $packageConfig['config']['bin-dir'];
 
+        // setup process timeout
+        if (false !== getenv('COMPOSER_PROCESS_TIMEOUT')) {
+            ProcessExecutor::setTimeout((int) getenv('COMPOSER_PROCESS_TIMEOUT'));
+        }
+
         // initialize repository manager
         $rm = $this->createRepositoryManager($io);
 
diff --git a/src/Composer/Util/ProcessExecutor.php b/src/Composer/Util/ProcessExecutor.php
index e4c7ba811..fef4de96a 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Util/ProcessExecutor.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Util/ProcessExecutor.php
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;
  */
 class ProcessExecutor
 {
+    static protected $timeout = 60;
+
     /**
      * runs a process on the commandline
      *
@@ -29,7 +31,7 @@ class ProcessExecutor
     public function execute($command, &$output = null)
     {
         $captureOutput = count(func_get_args()) > 1;
-        $process = new Process($command);
+        $process = new Process($command, null, null, null, static::getTimeout());
         $process->run(function($type, $buffer) use ($captureOutput) {
             if ($captureOutput) {
                 return;
@@ -49,4 +51,14 @@ class ProcessExecutor
     {
         return ((string) $output === '') ? array() : preg_split('{\r?\n}', $output);
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+
+    static public function getTimeout()
+    {
+        return static::$timeout;
+    }
+
+    static public function setTimeout($timeout)
+    {
+        static::$timeout = $timeout;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/Util/ProcessExecutorTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/Util/ProcessExecutorTest.php
index c7445308d..0ec924bb4 100644
--- a/tests/Composer/Test/Util/ProcessExecutorTest.php
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/Util/ProcessExecutorTest.php
@@ -33,6 +33,14 @@ class ProcessExecutorTest extends TestCase
         $this->assertEquals("foo".PHP_EOL, $output);
     }
 
+    public function testTimeout()
+    {
+        ProcessExecutor::setTimeout(1);
+        $process = new ProcessExecutor;
+        $this->assertEquals(1, $process->getTimeout());
+        ProcessExecutor::setTimeout(60);
+    }
+
     public function testSplitLines()
     {
         $process = new ProcessExecutor;