diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index 70a576a626..85d64b244d 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -1517,6 +1517,17 @@ sub esc_path {
 	return $str;
 }
 
+# Sanitize for use in XHTML + application/xml+xhtm (valid XML 1.0)
+sub sanitize {
+	my $str = shift;
+
+	return undef unless defined $str;
+
+	$str = to_utf8($str);
+	$str =~ s|([[:cntrl:]])|($1 =~ /[\t\n\r]/ ? $1 : quot_cec($1))|eg;
+	return $str;
+}
+
 # Make control characters "printable", using character escape codes (CEC)
 sub quot_cec {
 	my $cntrl = shift;
@@ -6484,7 +6495,8 @@ sub git_blob {
 			$nr++;
 			$line = untabify($line);
 			printf qq!<div class="pre"><a id="l%i" href="%s#l%i" class="linenr">%4i</a> %s</div>\n!,
-			       $nr, esc_attr(href(-replay => 1)), $nr, $nr, $syntax ? to_utf8($line) : esc_html($line, -nbsp=>1);
+			       $nr, esc_attr(href(-replay => 1)), $nr, $nr,
+			       $syntax ? sanitize($line) : esc_html($line, -nbsp=>1);
 		}
 	}
 	close $fd