diff --git a/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx b/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
index d3a483db..9b4066ac 100644
--- a/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
+++ b/simgear/misc/strutils.cxx
@@ -667,8 +667,9 @@ std::string unescape(const char* s)
         if (!*++s)
             break;
         int v = 0;
-        for (int i = 0; i < 2 && isxdigit(*s); i++, s++)
+        for (/* empty */; isxdigit(*s); s++) {
             v = v * 16 + (isdigit(*s) ? *s - '0' : 10 + tolower(*s) - 'a');
+        }
         r += v;
         continue;
 
diff --git a/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx b/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx
index d2c19cd9..a485e432 100644
--- a/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx
+++ b/simgear/misc/strutils_test.cxx
@@ -144,6 +144,11 @@ void test_unescape()
   SG_CHECK_EQUAL(strutils::unescape("\\ \\n\\t\\x41\\117a"), " \n\tAOa");
   // Two chars: '\033' (ESC) followed by '2'
   SG_CHECK_EQUAL(strutils::unescape("\\0332"), "\0332");
+  // Hex escapes have no length limit and terminate at the first character
+  // that is not a valid hexadecimal digit.
+  SG_CHECK_EQUAL(strutils::unescape("\\x00020|"), " |");
+  SG_CHECK_EQUAL(strutils::unescape("\\xA"), "\n");
+  SG_CHECK_EQUAL(strutils::unescape("\\xA-"), "\n-");
 }
 
 void test_compare_versions()