diff --git a/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/DefaultRedirectStrategy.java b/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/DefaultRedirectStrategy.java
index 42055203f4..2c0d8ae0f3 100644
--- a/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/DefaultRedirectStrategy.java
+++ b/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/DefaultRedirectStrategy.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.springframework.security.web.util.UrlUtils;
 
 /**
  * Simple implementation of <tt>RedirectStrategy</tt> which is the default used throughout the framework.
@@ -15,6 +16,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
  * @since 3.0
  */
 public class DefaultRedirectStrategy implements RedirectStrategy {
+
     protected final Log logger = LogFactory.getLog(getClass());
 
     private boolean contextRelative;
@@ -38,7 +40,7 @@ public class DefaultRedirectStrategy implements RedirectStrategy {
     }
 
     private String calculateRedirectUrl(String contextPath, String url) {
-        if (!url.startsWith("http://") && !url.startsWith("https://")) {
+        if (!UrlUtils.isAbsoluteUrl(url)) {
             if (contextRelative) {
                 return url;
             } else {
@@ -52,8 +54,8 @@ public class DefaultRedirectStrategy implements RedirectStrategy {
             return url;
         }
 
-        // Calculate the relative URL from the fully qualifed URL, minus the protocol and base context.
-        url = url.substring(url.indexOf("://") + 3); // strip off protocol
+        // Calculate the relative URL from the fully qualified URL, minus the scheme and base context.
+        url = url.substring(url.indexOf("://") + 3); // strip off scheme
         url = url.substring(url.indexOf(contextPath) + contextPath.length());
 
         if (url.length() > 1 && url.charAt(0) == '/') {
diff --git a/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/util/UrlUtils.java b/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/util/UrlUtils.java
index 88d4f14d2c..fb679e0f21 100644
--- a/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/util/UrlUtils.java
+++ b/web/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/web/util/UrlUtils.java
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@
 
 package org.springframework.security.web.util;
 
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
 import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
 
 
@@ -96,7 +98,7 @@ public final class UrlUtils {
      * Obtains the web application-specific fragment of the URL.
      */
     private static String buildRequestUrl(String servletPath, String requestURI, String contextPath, String pathInfo,
-        String queryString) {
+            String queryString) {
 
         StringBuilder url = new StringBuilder();
 
@@ -117,9 +119,18 @@ public final class UrlUtils {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Returns true if the supplied URL starts with a "/" or "http".
+     * Returns true if the supplied URL starts with a "/" or is absolute.
      */
     public static boolean isValidRedirectUrl(String url) {
-        return url != null && url.startsWith("/") || url.toLowerCase().startsWith("http");
+        return url != null && url.startsWith("/") || isAbsoluteUrl(url);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Decides if a URL is absolute based on whether it contains a valid scheme name, as defined in RFC 1738.
+     */
+    public static boolean isAbsoluteUrl(String url) {
+        final Pattern ABSOLUTE_URL = Pattern.compile("\\A[a-z.+-]+://.*", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
+
+        return ABSOLUTE_URL.matcher(url).matches();
     }
 }
diff --git a/web/src/test/java/org/springframework/security/web/util/UrlUtilsTests.java b/web/src/test/java/org/springframework/security/web/util/UrlUtilsTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4d521bc99e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/web/src/test/java/org/springframework/security/web/util/UrlUtilsTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package org.springframework.security.web.util;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/**
+ *
+ * @author Luke Taylor
+ */
+public class UrlUtilsTests {
+
+    @Test
+    public void absoluteUrlsAreMatchedAsAbsolute() throws Exception {
+        assertTrue(UrlUtils.isAbsoluteUrl("http://something/"));
+        assertTrue(UrlUtils.isAbsoluteUrl("HTTP://something/"));
+        assertTrue(UrlUtils.isAbsoluteUrl("https://something/"));
+        assertTrue(UrlUtils.isAbsoluteUrl("a://something/"));
+        assertTrue(UrlUtils.isAbsoluteUrl("zz+zz.zz-zz://something/"));
+    }
+
+}