diff --git a/wp-includes/formatting.php b/wp-includes/formatting.php
index 2a22eb93e7..747f0099da 100644
--- a/wp-includes/formatting.php
+++ b/wp-includes/formatting.php
@@ -109,7 +109,9 @@ function seems_utf8($Str) { # by bmorel at ssi dot fr
 
 function wp_specialchars( $text, $quotes = 0 ) {
 	// Like htmlspecialchars except don't double-encode HTML entities
-	$text = preg_replace('/&([^#])(?![a-z1-4]{1,8};)/', '&$1', $text);
+	$text = str_replace('&&', '&&', $text);
+	$text = str_replace('&&', '&&', $text);
+	$text = preg_replace('/&(?:$|([^#])(?![a-z1-4]{1,8};))/', '&$1', $text);
 	$text = str_replace('<', '&lt;', $text);
 	$text = str_replace('>', '&gt;', $text);
 	if ( 'double' === $quotes ) {