diff --git a/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpObjectDecoder.java b/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpObjectDecoder.java
index adbb413968..01ae62bda0 100644
--- a/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpObjectDecoder.java
+++ b/codec-http/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpObjectDecoder.java
@@ -743,6 +743,11 @@ public abstract class HttpObjectDecoder extends ByteToMessageDecoder {
             }
         }
 
+        if (nameEnd == length) {
+            // There was no colon present at all.
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException("No colon found");
+        }
+
         for (colonEnd = nameEnd; colonEnd < length; colonEnd ++) {
             if (sb.charAtUnsafe(colonEnd) == ':') {
                 colonEnd ++;
diff --git a/codec-http/src/test/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestDecoderTest.java b/codec-http/src/test/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestDecoderTest.java
index b243f2de99..4117f521d8 100644
--- a/codec-http/src/test/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestDecoderTest.java
+++ b/codec-http/src/test/java/io/netty/handler/codec/http/HttpRequestDecoderTest.java
@@ -334,4 +334,20 @@ public class HttpRequestDecoderTest {
         assertTrue(request.decoderResult().cause() instanceof IllegalArgumentException);
         assertFalse(channel.finish());
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testHeaderWithNoValueAndMissingColon() {
+        EmbeddedChannel channel = new EmbeddedChannel(new HttpRequestDecoder());
+        String requestStr = "GET /some/path HTTP/1.1\r\n" +
+                "Content-Length: 0\r\n" +
+                "Host:\r\n" +
+                "netty.io\r\n\r\n";
+
+        assertTrue(channel.writeInbound(Unpooled.copiedBuffer(requestStr, CharsetUtil.US_ASCII)));
+        HttpRequest request = channel.readInbound();
+        System.err.println(request.headers().names().toString());
+        assertTrue(request.decoderResult().isFailure());
+        assertTrue(request.decoderResult().cause() instanceof IllegalArgumentException);
+        assertFalse(channel.finish());
+    }
 }