diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java
index bb1a02ec200..de9893bdcd9 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/Configuration.java
@@ -2925,6 +2925,7 @@ public class Configuration implements Iterable<Map.Entry<String,String>>,
           break;
 
         case XMLStreamConstants.CHARACTERS:
+        case XMLStreamConstants.CDATA:
           if (parseToken) {
             char[] text = reader.getTextCharacters();
             token.append(text, reader.getTextStart(), reader.getTextLength());
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
index f5daf2c886b..d491a52b6c5 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/conf/TestConfiguration.java
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 import org.apache.log4j.spi.LoggingEvent;
 import org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers;
 import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Test;
 import org.mockito.Mockito;
 
 import static org.apache.hadoop.util.PlatformName.IBM_JAVA;
@@ -2104,4 +2105,41 @@ public class TestConfiguration extends TestCase {
       TestConfiguration.class.getName()
     });
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testCDATA() throws IOException {
+    String xml = new String(
+        "<configuration>" +
+          "<property>" +
+            "<name>cdata</name>" +
+            "<value><![CDATA[>cdata]]></value>" +
+          "</property>\n" +
+          "<property>" +
+            "<name>cdata-multiple</name>" +
+            "<value><![CDATA[>cdata1]]> and <![CDATA[>cdata2]]></value>" +
+          "</property>\n" +
+          "<property>" +
+            "<name>cdata-multiline</name>" +
+            "<value><![CDATA[>cdata\nmultiline<>]]></value>" +
+          "</property>\n" +
+          "<property>" +
+            "<name>cdata-whitespace</name>" +
+            "<value>  prefix <![CDATA[>cdata]]>\nsuffix  </value>" +
+          "</property>\n" +
+        "</configuration>");
+    Configuration conf = checkCDATA(xml.getBytes());
+    ByteArrayOutputStream os = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+    conf.writeXml(os);
+    checkCDATA(os.toByteArray());
+  }
+
+  private static Configuration checkCDATA(byte[] bytes) {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration(false);
+    conf.addResource(new ByteArrayInputStream(bytes));
+    assertEquals(">cdata", conf.get("cdata"));
+    assertEquals(">cdata1 and >cdata2", conf.get("cdata-multiple"));
+    assertEquals(">cdata\nmultiline<>", conf.get("cdata-multiline"));
+    assertEquals("  prefix >cdata\nsuffix  ", conf.get("cdata-whitespace"));
+    return conf;
+  }
 }