diff --git a/src/pkg/xml/xml.go b/src/pkg/xml/xml.go
index eed9355547c..4d9c672d273 100644
--- a/src/pkg/xml/xml.go
+++ b/src/pkg/xml/xml.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ package xml
 import (
 	"bufio"
 	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"os"
 	"strconv"
@@ -871,6 +872,21 @@ Input:
 	data := p.buf.Bytes()
 	data = data[0 : len(data)-trunc]
 
+	// Inspect each rune for being a disallowed character.
+	buf := data
+	for len(buf) > 0 {
+		r, size := utf8.DecodeRune(buf)
+		if r == utf8.RuneError && size == 1 {
+			p.err = p.syntaxError("invalid UTF-8")
+			return nil
+		}
+		buf = buf[size:]
+		if !isInCharacterRange(r) {
+			p.err = p.syntaxError(fmt.Sprintf("illegal character code %U", r))
+			return nil
+		}
+	}
+
 	// Must rewrite \r and \r\n into \n.
 	w := 0
 	for r := 0; r < len(data); r++ {
@@ -887,6 +903,18 @@ Input:
 	return data[0:w]
 }
 
+// Decide whether the given rune is in the XML Character Range, per
+// the Char production of http://www.xml.com/axml/testaxml.htm,
+// Section 2.2 Characters.
+func isInCharacterRange(rune int) (inrange bool) {
+	return rune == 0x09 ||
+		rune == 0x0A ||
+		rune == 0x0D ||
+		rune >= 0x20 && rune <= 0xDF77 ||
+		rune >= 0xE000 && rune <= 0xFFFD ||
+		rune >= 0x10000 && rune <= 0x10FFFF
+}
+
 // Get name space name: name with a : stuck in the middle.
 // The part before the : is the name space identifier.
 func (p *Parser) nsname() (name Name, ok bool) {
diff --git a/src/pkg/xml/xml_test.go b/src/pkg/xml/xml_test.go
index 2c73fcc803e..9ab199a30e7 100644
--- a/src/pkg/xml/xml_test.go
+++ b/src/pkg/xml/xml_test.go
@@ -398,3 +398,44 @@ func TestEntityInsideCDATA(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("p.Token() = _, %v, want _, os.EOF", err)
 	}
 }
+
+
+// The last three tests (respectively one for characters in attribute
+// names and two for character entities) pass not because of code
+// changed for issue 1259, but instead pass with the given messages
+// from other parts of xml.Parser.  I provide these to note the
+// current behavior of situations where one might think that character
+// range checking would detect the error, but it does not in fact.
+
+var characterTests = []struct {
+	in  string
+	err string
+}{
+	{"\x12<doc/>", "illegal character code U+0012"},
+	{"<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>\x0b<doc/>", "illegal character code U+000B"},
+	{"\xef\xbf\xbe<doc/>", "illegal character code U+FFFE"},
+	{"<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><doc>\r\n<hiya/>\x07<toots/></doc>", "illegal character code U+0007"},
+	{"<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><doc \x12='value'>what's up</doc>", "expected attribute name in element"},
+	{"<doc>&\x01;</doc>", "invalid character entity &;"},
+	{"<doc>&\xef\xbf\xbe;</doc>", "invalid character entity &;"},
+}
+
+
+func TestDisallowedCharacters(t *testing.T) {
+
+	for i, tt := range characterTests {
+		p := NewParser(StringReader(tt.in))
+		var err os.Error
+
+		for err == nil {
+			_, err = p.Token()
+		}
+		synerr, ok := err.(*SyntaxError)
+		if !ok {
+			t.Fatalf("input %d p.Token() = _, %v, want _, *SyntaxError", i, err)
+		}
+		if synerr.Msg != tt.err {
+			t.Fatalf("input %d synerr.Msg wrong: want '%s', got '%s'", i, tt.err, synerr.Msg)
+		}
+	}
+}