diff --git a/src/threading/formatters/Ascii.cc b/src/threading/formatters/Ascii.cc
index ff43bfa27b..3cff8b02cf 100644
--- a/src/threading/formatters/Ascii.cc
+++ b/src/threading/formatters/Ascii.cc
@@ -225,7 +225,9 @@ Value* Ascii::ParseValue(const string& s, const string& name, TypeTag type, Type
 		{
 		string unescaped = util::get_unescaped_string(s);
 		val->val.string_val.length = unescaped.size();
-		val->val.string_val.data = util::copy_string(unescaped.c_str());
+		val->val.string_val.data = new char[val->val.string_val.length];
+		// we do not need a zero-byte at the end - the input manager adds that explicitly
+		memcpy(val->val.string_val.data, unescaped.data(), unescaped.size());
 		break;
 		}
 
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.binary/out b/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.binary/out
index 5c7202123e..3b2153d05a 100644
--- a/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.binary/out
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/scripts.base.frameworks.input.binary/out
@@ -5,3 +5,5 @@ abc|\xffdef
 DATA2
 abc\xff|def
 DATA2
+abc\x00\x00\x00\xff|def
+DATA3
diff --git a/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/binary.zeek b/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/binary.zeek
index fa98625997..b151c2a4b2 100644
--- a/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/binary.zeek
+++ b/testing/btest/scripts/base/frameworks/input/binary.zeek
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ redef InputAscii::unset_field = "-";
 abc\x0a\xffdef|DATA2
 abc\x7c\xffdef|DATA2
 abc\xff\x7cdef|DATA2
+abc\x00\x00\x00\xff\x7cdef|DATA3
 #end|2012-07-20-01-49-19
 @TEST-END-FILE
 
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@ event line(description: Input::EventDescription, tpe: Input::Event, a: string, b
 	print outfile, a;
 	print outfile, b;
 	try = try + 1;
-	if ( try == 3 )
+	if ( try == 4 )
 		{
 		Input::remove("input");
 		close(outfile);