diff --git a/src/stream_base.cc b/src/stream_base.cc
index 3ed622d7ef35a2..19130b5bb8bd7e 100644
--- a/src/stream_base.cc
+++ b/src/stream_base.cc
@@ -189,9 +189,14 @@ int StreamBase::Writev(const FunctionCallbackInfo<Value>& args) {
 
 int StreamBase::WriteBuffer(const FunctionCallbackInfo<Value>& args) {
   CHECK(args[0]->IsObject());
-  CHECK(Buffer::HasInstance(args[1]));
+
   Environment* env = Environment::GetCurrent(args);
 
+  if (!args[1]->IsUint8Array()) {
+    env->ThrowTypeError("Second argument must be a buffer");
+    return 0;
+  }
+
   Local<Object> req_wrap_obj = args[0].As<Object>();
   const char* data = Buffer::Data(args[1]);
   size_t length = Buffer::Length(args[1]);
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-stream-base-typechecking.js b/test/parallel/test-stream-base-typechecking.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..8d559a42dfc54a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-stream-base-typechecking.js
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const net = require('net');
+
+const server = net.createServer().listen(0, common.mustCall(() => {
+  const client = net.connect(server.address().port, common.mustCall(() => {
+    assert.throws(() => {
+      client.write('broken', 'buffer');
+    }, /^TypeError: Second argument must be a buffer$/);
+    client.destroy();
+    server.close();
+  }));
+}));