diff --git a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/c/io_netty_channel_epoll_Native.c b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/c/io_netty_channel_epoll_Native.c
index 480bf50a1c..4dc579ee9e 100644
--- a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/c/io_netty_channel_epoll_Native.c
+++ b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/c/io_netty_channel_epoll_Native.c
@@ -1482,21 +1482,29 @@ JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_socketDomain(JNIEnv* e
     return fd;
 }
 
-JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_bindDomainSocket(JNIEnv* env, jclass clazz, jint fd, jstring socketPath) {
+// macro to calculate the length of a sockaddr_un struct for a given path length.
+// see sys/un.h#SUN_LEN, this is modified to allow nul bytes
+#define _UNIX_ADDR_LENGTH(path_len) (((struct sockaddr_un *) 0)->sun_path) + path_len
+
+JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_bindDomainSocket(JNIEnv* env, jclass clazz, jint fd, jbyteArray socketPath) {
     struct sockaddr_un addr;
 
     memset(&addr, 0, sizeof(addr));
     addr.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
 
-    const char* socket_path = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, socketPath, 0);
-    memcpy(addr.sun_path, socket_path, strlen(socket_path));
+    const jbyte* socket_path = (*env)->GetByteArrayElements(env, socketPath, 0);
+    jint socket_path_len = (*env)->GetArrayLength(env, socketPath);
+    if (socket_path_len > sizeof(addr.sun_path)) {
+        socket_path_len = sizeof(addr.sun_path);
+    }
+    memcpy(addr.sun_path, socket_path, socket_path_len);
 
     if (unlink(socket_path) == -1 && errno != ENOENT) {
         return -errno;
     }
 
-    int res = bind(fd, (struct sockaddr*) &addr, sizeof(addr));
-    (*env)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(env, socketPath, socket_path);
+    int res = bind(fd, (struct sockaddr*) &addr, _UNIX_ADDR_LENGTH(socket_path_len));
+    (*env)->ReleaseByteArrayElements(env, socketPath, socket_path, 0);
 
     if (res == -1) {
         return -errno;
@@ -1504,22 +1512,27 @@ JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_bindDomainSocket(JNIEn
     return res;
 }
 
-JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_connectDomainSocket(JNIEnv* env, jclass clazz, jint fd, jstring socketPath) {
+JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_connectDomainSocket(JNIEnv* env, jclass clazz, jint fd, jbyteArray socketPath) {
     struct sockaddr_un addr;
+    jint socket_path_len;
 
     memset(&addr, 0, sizeof(addr));
     addr.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
 
-    const char* socket_path = (*env)->GetStringUTFChars(env, socketPath, 0);
-    strncpy(addr.sun_path, socket_path, sizeof(addr.sun_path) - 1);
+    const jbyte* socket_path = (*env)->GetByteArrayElements(env, socketPath, 0);
+    socket_path_len = (*env)->GetArrayLength(env, socketPath);
+    if (socket_path_len > sizeof(addr.sun_path)) {
+        socket_path_len = sizeof(addr.sun_path);
+    }
+    memcpy(addr.sun_path, socket_path, socket_path_len);
 
     int res;
     int err;
     do {
-        res = connect(fd, (struct sockaddr*) &addr, sizeof(addr));
+        res = connect(fd, (struct sockaddr*) &addr, _UNIX_ADDR_LENGTH(socket_path_len));
     } while (res == -1 && ((err = errno) == EINTR));
 
-    (*env)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(env, socketPath, socket_path);
+    (*env)->ReleaseByteArrayElements(env, socketPath, socket_path, 0);
 
     if (res < 0) {
         return -err;
@@ -1688,4 +1701,4 @@ JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_splice0(JNIEnv* env, j
 
 JNIEXPORT jlong JNICALL Java_io_netty_channel_epoll_Native_ssizeMax(JNIEnv* env, jclass clazz) {
     return SSIZE_MAX;
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/Native.java b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/Native.java
index 492d3f8680..4def6e42b0 100644
--- a/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/Native.java
+++ b/transport-native-epoll/src/main/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/Native.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package io.netty.channel.epoll;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelException;
 import io.netty.channel.DefaultFileRegion;
 import io.netty.channel.unix.DomainSocketAddress;
+import io.netty.util.CharsetUtil;
 import io.netty.util.internal.EmptyArrays;
 import io.netty.util.internal.NativeLibraryLoader;
 import io.netty.util.internal.PlatformDependent;
@@ -435,7 +436,7 @@ public final class Native {
             }
         } else if (socketAddress instanceof DomainSocketAddress) {
             DomainSocketAddress addr = (DomainSocketAddress) socketAddress;
-            int res = bindDomainSocket(fd, addr.path());
+            int res = bindDomainSocket(fd, addr.path().getBytes(CharsetUtil.UTF_8));
             if (res < 0) {
                 throw newIOException("bind", res);
             }
@@ -445,7 +446,7 @@ public final class Native {
     }
 
     private static native int bind(int fd, byte[] address, int scopeId, int port);
-    private static native int bindDomainSocket(int fd, String path);
+    private static native int bindDomainSocket(int fd, byte[] path);
 
     public static void listen(int fd, int backlog) throws IOException {
         int res = listen0(fd, backlog);
@@ -464,7 +465,7 @@ public final class Native {
             res = connect(fd, address.address, address.scopeId, inetSocketAddress.getPort());
         } else if (socketAddress instanceof DomainSocketAddress) {
             DomainSocketAddress unixDomainSocketAddress = (DomainSocketAddress) socketAddress;
-            res = connectDomainSocket(fd, unixDomainSocketAddress.path());
+            res = connectDomainSocket(fd, unixDomainSocketAddress.path().getBytes(CharsetUtil.UTF_8));
         } else {
             throw new Error("Unexpected SocketAddress implementation " + socketAddress);
         }
@@ -479,7 +480,7 @@ public final class Native {
     }
 
     private static native int connect(int fd, byte[] address, int scopeId, int port);
-    private static native int connectDomainSocket(int fd, String path);
+    private static native int connectDomainSocket(int fd, byte[] path);
 
     public static boolean finishConnect(int fd) throws IOException {
         int res = finishConnect0(fd);
diff --git a/transport-native-epoll/src/test/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollAbstractDomainSocketEchoTest.java b/transport-native-epoll/src/test/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollAbstractDomainSocketEchoTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ea0deb94a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/transport-native-epoll/src/test/java/io/netty/channel/epoll/EpollAbstractDomainSocketEchoTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2015 The Netty Project
+ *
+ * The Netty Project 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.
+ */
+package io.netty.channel.epoll;
+
+import io.netty.channel.unix.DomainSocketAddress;
+import java.net.SocketAddress;
+import java.util.UUID;
+
+public class EpollAbstractDomainSocketEchoTest extends EpollDomainSocketEchoTest {
+    @Override
+    protected SocketAddress newSocketAddress() {
+        // these don't actually show up in the file system so creating a temp file isn't reliable
+        return new DomainSocketAddress("\0/tmp/" + UUID.randomUUID());
+    }
+}