diff --git a/src/reflect/all_test.go b/src/reflect/all_test.go
index 7d40f9a8b67..2be32f31b4f 100644
--- a/src/reflect/all_test.go
+++ b/src/reflect/all_test.go
@@ -2735,6 +2735,8 @@ var tagGetTests = []struct {
 	{`protobuf:"PB(1,2)"`, `rotobuf`, ``},
 	{`protobuf:"PB(1,2)" json:"name"`, `json`, `name`},
 	{`protobuf:"PB(1,2)" json:"name"`, `protobuf`, `PB(1,2)`},
+	{`k0:"values contain spaces" k1:"and\ttabs"`, "k0", "values contain spaces"},
+	{`k0:"values contain spaces" k1:"and\ttabs"`, "k1", "and\ttabs"},
 }
 
 func TestTagGet(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/src/reflect/type.go b/src/reflect/type.go
index ae7d165a68d..0a8c40808a1 100644
--- a/src/reflect/type.go
+++ b/src/reflect/type.go
@@ -762,8 +762,11 @@ type StructTag string
 // If the tag does not have the conventional format, the value
 // returned by Get is unspecified.
 func (tag StructTag) Get(key string) string {
+	// When modifying this code, also update the validateStructTag code
+	// in golang.org/x/tools/cmd/vet/structtag.go.
+
 	for tag != "" {
-		// skip leading space
+		// Skip leading space.
 		i := 0
 		for i < len(tag) && tag[i] == ' ' {
 			i++
@@ -773,19 +776,21 @@ func (tag StructTag) Get(key string) string {
 			break
 		}
 
-		// scan to colon.
-		// a space or a quote is a syntax error
+		// Scan to colon. A space, a quote or a control character is a syntax error.
+		// Strictly speaking, control chars include the range [0x7f, 0x9f], not just
+		// [0x00, 0x1f], but in practice, we ignore the multi-byte control characters
+		// as it is simpler to inspect the tag's bytes than the tag's runes.
 		i = 0
-		for i < len(tag) && tag[i] != ' ' && tag[i] != ':' && tag[i] != '"' {
+		for i < len(tag) && tag[i] > ' ' && tag[i] != ':' && tag[i] != '"' && tag[i] != 0x7f {
 			i++
 		}
-		if i+1 >= len(tag) || tag[i] != ':' || tag[i+1] != '"' {
+		if i == 0 || i+1 >= len(tag) || tag[i] != ':' || tag[i+1] != '"' {
 			break
 		}
 		name := string(tag[:i])
 		tag = tag[i+1:]
 
-		// scan quoted string to find value
+		// Scan quoted string to find value.
 		i = 1
 		for i < len(tag) && tag[i] != '"' {
 			if tag[i] == '\\' {
@@ -800,7 +805,10 @@ func (tag StructTag) Get(key string) string {
 		tag = tag[i+1:]
 
 		if key == name {
-			value, _ := strconv.Unquote(qvalue)
+			value, err := strconv.Unquote(qvalue)
+			if err != nil {
+				break
+			}
 			return value
 		}
 	}