diff --git a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
index 0558cba495a..08586a64d03 100644
--- a/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -147,6 +147,10 @@ if("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}" STREQUAL "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}")
     "Build the Arrow CPython extensions"
     OFF)
 
+  option(ARROW_FUZZING
+    "Build Arrow Fuzzing executables"
+    OFF)
+
   option(ARROW_SSE3
     "Build Arrow with SSE3"
     ON)
@@ -249,6 +253,10 @@ if(NOT ARROW_BUILD_BENCHMARKS)
   set(NO_BENCHMARKS 1)
 endif()
 
+if (NOT ARROW_FUZZING)
+  set(NO_FUZZING 1)
+endif()
+
 if(ARROW_HDFS)
   set(ARROW_BOOST_HEADER_ONLY 0)
 else()
@@ -300,6 +308,9 @@ if ("${COMPILER_FAMILY}" STREQUAL "clang")
 endif()
 
 # ASAN / TSAN / UBSAN
+if(ARROW_FUZZING)
+    set(ARROW_USE_COVERAGE ON)
+endif()
 include(san-config)
 
 # For any C code, use the same flags.
diff --git a/cpp/README.md b/cpp/README.md
index 52169974de4..1daf863819c 100644
--- a/cpp/README.md
+++ b/cpp/README.md
@@ -99,6 +99,40 @@ and benchmarks or `make runbenchmark` to run only the benchmark tests.
 
 Benchmark logs will be placed in the build directory under `build/benchmark-logs`.
 
+## Building/Running fuzzers
+
+Fuzzers can help finding unhandled exceptions and problems with untrusted input that
+may lead to crashes, security issues and undefined behavior. They do this by
+generating random input data and observing the behavior of the executed code. To build
+the fuzzer code, LLVM is required (GCC-based compilers won't work). You can build them
+using the following code:
+
+    cmake -DARROW_FUZZING=ON -DARROW_USE_ASAN=ON ..
+
+`ARROW_FUZZING` will enable building of fuzzer executables as well as enable the
+addition of coverage helpers via `ARROW_USE_COVERAGE`, so that the fuzzer can observe
+the program execution.
+
+It is also wise to enable some sanitizers like `ARROW_USE_ASAN` (see above), which
+activates the address sanitizer. This way, we ensure that bad memory operations
+provoked by the fuzzer will be found early. You may also enable other sanitizers as
+well. Just keep in mind that some of them do not work together and some may result
+in very long execution times, which will slow down the fuzzing procedure.
+
+Now you can start one of the fuzzer, e.g.:
+
+    ./debug/debug/ipc-fuzzing-test
+
+This will try to find a malformed input that crashes the payload and will show the
+stack trace as well as the input data. After a problem was found this way, it should
+be reported and fixed. Usually, the fuzzing process cannot be continued until the
+fix is applied, since the fuzzer usually converts to the problem again.
+
+There are some problems that may occur during the compilation process:
+
+- libfuzzer was not distributed with your LLVM: `ld: file not found: .../libLLVMFuzzer.a`
+- your LLVM is too old: `clang: error: unsupported argument 'fuzzer' to option 'fsanitize='`
+
 ### Third-party environment variables
 
 To set up your own specific build toolchain, here are the relevant environment
diff --git a/cpp/cmake_modules/BuildUtils.cmake b/cpp/cmake_modules/BuildUtils.cmake
index 207bb9aede0..f8c0f5ed237 100644
--- a/cpp/cmake_modules/BuildUtils.cmake
+++ b/cpp/cmake_modules/BuildUtils.cmake
@@ -347,3 +347,34 @@ function(ARROW_TEST_LINK_LIBRARIES REL_TEST_NAME)
 
   target_link_libraries(${TEST_NAME} ${ARGN})
 endfunction()
+
+
+############################################################
+# Fuzzing
+############################################################
+# Add new fuzzing test executable.
+#
+# The single source file must define a function:
+#   extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t* data, size_t size)
+#
+# No main function must be present within the source file!
+#
+function(ADD_ARROW_FUZZING REL_FUZZING_NAME)
+  if(NO_FUZZING)
+    return()
+  endif()
+
+  if (ARROW_BUILD_STATIC)
+    set(FUZZ_LINK_LIBS arrow_static)
+  else()
+    set(FUZZ_LINK_LIBS arrow_shared)
+  endif()
+
+  add_executable(${REL_FUZZING_NAME} "${REL_FUZZING_NAME}.cc")
+  target_link_libraries(${REL_FUZZING_NAME} ${FUZZ_LINK_LIBS})
+  target_compile_options(${REL_FUZZING_NAME}
+      PRIVATE "-fsanitize=fuzzer")
+  set_target_properties(${REL_FUZZING_NAME}
+      PROPERTIES
+      LINK_FLAGS "-fsanitize=fuzzer")
+endfunction()
diff --git a/cpp/cmake_modules/san-config.cmake b/cpp/cmake_modules/san-config.cmake
index 1917eabe8b4..f2de9cf1f75 100644
--- a/cpp/cmake_modules/san-config.cmake
+++ b/cpp/cmake_modules/san-config.cmake
@@ -87,6 +87,16 @@ if (${ARROW_USE_TSAN})
 endif()
 
 
+if (${ARROW_USE_COVERAGE})
+  if(NOT ("${COMPILER_FAMILY}" STREQUAL "clang"))
+    message(SEND_ERROR "You can only enable coverage with clang")
+  endif()
+  add_definitions("-fsanitize-coverage=trace-pc-guard")
+
+  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fsanitize-coverage=trace-pc-guard")
+endif()
+
+
 if ("${ARROW_USE_UBSAN}" OR "${ARROW_USE_ASAN}" OR "${ARROW_USE_TSAN}")
   # GCC 4.8 and 4.9 (latest as of this writing) don't allow you to specify a
   # sanitizer blacklist.
diff --git a/cpp/src/arrow/ipc/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/src/arrow/ipc/CMakeLists.txt
index a24349fd6c9..2976a15ce27 100644
--- a/cpp/src/arrow/ipc/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/src/arrow/ipc/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -117,3 +117,5 @@ if (ARROW_BUILD_UTILITIES)
 endif()
 
 ADD_ARROW_BENCHMARK(ipc-read-write-benchmark)
+
+ADD_ARROW_FUZZING(ipc-fuzzing-test)
diff --git a/cpp/src/arrow/ipc/ipc-fuzzing-test.cc b/cpp/src/arrow/ipc/ipc-fuzzing-test.cc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..83fe94b139b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cpp/src/arrow/ipc/ipc-fuzzing-test.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+// or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+// distributed with this work for additional information
+// regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+// to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+// "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+// with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+
+#include <memory>
+
+#include <arrow/buffer.h>
+#include <arrow/io/memory.h>
+#include <arrow/ipc/reader.h>
+
+extern "C" int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t* data, size_t size) {
+  arrow::Status status;
+
+  auto buffer = std::make_shared<arrow::Buffer>(data, size);
+  arrow::io::BufferReader buffer_reader(buffer);
+
+  std::shared_ptr<arrow::ipc::RecordBatchReader> batch_reader;
+  status = arrow::ipc::RecordBatchStreamReader::Open(&buffer_reader, &batch_reader);
+  if (!status.ok()) {
+    return 0;
+  }
+
+  std::shared_ptr<arrow::RecordBatch> batch;
+  do {
+    status = batch_reader->ReadNext(&batch);
+    if (!status.ok()) {
+      return 0;
+    }
+  } while (batch);
+  return 0;
+}