diff --git a/core/net/http-socket/http-socket.c b/core/net/http-socket/http-socket.c
index 3495b597b..b08605213 100644
--- a/core/net/http-socket/http-socket.c
+++ b/core/net/http-socket/http-socket.c
@@ -350,6 +350,11 @@ parse_url(const char *url, char *host, uint16_t *portptr, char *path)
     }
   }
 
+  /* check if host is null terminated */
+  if(!memchr(host, 0, MAX_HOSTLEN)) {
+    return 0;
+  }
+
   /* Find the port. Default is 80. */
   port = 80;
   if(*urlptr == ':') {
@@ -413,7 +418,15 @@ event(struct tcp_socket *tcps, void *ptr,
       tcp_socket_send_str(tcps, " HTTP/1.1\r\n");
       tcp_socket_send_str(tcps, "Connection: close\r\n");
       tcp_socket_send_str(tcps, "Host: ");
+      /* If we have IPv6 host, add the '[' and the ']' characters
+         to the host. As in rfc2732. */
+      if(memchr(host, ':', MAX_HOSTLEN)) {
+        tcp_socket_send_str(tcps, "[");
+      }
       tcp_socket_send_str(tcps, host);
+      if(memchr(host, ':', MAX_HOSTLEN)) {
+        tcp_socket_send_str(tcps, "]");
+      }
       tcp_socket_send_str(tcps, "\r\n");
       if(s->postdata != NULL) {
         if(s->content_type) {