diff --git a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/HostPort.java b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/HostPort.java
index c1db3636460..5e4eba9481b 100644
--- a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/HostPort.java
+++ b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/HostPort.java
@@ -22,9 +22,13 @@ package org.eclipse.jetty.util;
  * Parse an authority string into Host and Port
  * <p>Parse a string in the form "host:port", handling IPv4 an IPv6 hosts</p>
  *
+ * <p>The System property "org.eclipse.jetty.util.HostPort.STRIP_IPV6" can be set to a boolean 
+ * value to control of the square brackets are stripped off IPv6 addresses.</p>
  */
 public class HostPort
 {
+    private final static boolean STRIP_IPV6 = Boolean.parseBoolean(System.getProperty("org.eclipse.jetty.util.HostPort.STRIP_IPV6","true"));
+    
     private final String _host;
     private final int _port;
 
@@ -45,7 +49,7 @@ public class HostPort
                 int close=authority.lastIndexOf(']');
                 if (close<0)
                     throw new IllegalArgumentException("Bad IPv6 host");
-                _host=authority.substring(0,close+1);
+                _host=STRIP_IPV6?authority.substring(0,close+1):authority.substring(1,close);
 
                 if (authority.length()>close+1)
                 {