diff --git a/libc/stdio/vcscanf.c b/libc/stdio/vcscanf.c
index bf2b9ff36..f58f21e74 100644
--- a/libc/stdio/vcscanf.c
+++ b/libc/stdio/vcscanf.c
@@ -550,6 +550,11 @@ int __vcscanf(int callback(void *),    //
               if (!j && c == -1 && !items) {
                 items = -1;
                 goto Done;
+              } else if (rawmode && j != width) {
+                /* The C standard says that %c "matches a sequence of characters of
+                 * **exactly** the number specified by the field width". If we have
+                 * fewer characters, what we've just read is invalid. */
+                goto Done;
               } else if (!rawmode && j < bufsize) {
                 if (charbytes == sizeof(char)) {
                   buf[j] = '\0';
diff --git a/test/libc/stdio/sscanf_test.c b/test/libc/stdio/sscanf_test.c
index 295706748..40e35f1c4 100644
--- a/test/libc/stdio/sscanf_test.c
+++ b/test/libc/stdio/sscanf_test.c
@@ -69,9 +69,17 @@ TEST(sscanf, testNonDirectiveCharacterMatching) {
 }
 
 TEST(sscanf, testCharacter) {
-  char c = 0;
-  EXPECT_EQ(1, sscanf("a", "%c", &c));
-  EXPECT_EQ('a', c);
+  char c1 = 0, c2 = c1, c3 = c2, c4 = c3;
+  char s1[32] = {0}, s2[32] = {0};
+  EXPECT_EQ(1, sscanf("a", "%c", &c1));
+  EXPECT_EQ(2, sscanf("ab", "%c %c %c", &c2, &c3, &c4));
+  EXPECT_EQ(1, sscanf("abcde", "%5c", s1));
+  EXPECT_EQ(0, sscanf("abcd", "%5c", s2));
+
+  EXPECT_EQ('a', c1);
+  EXPECT_EQ('a', c2);
+  EXPECT_EQ('b', c3);
+  EXPECT_STREQ("abcde", &s1[0]);
 }
 
 TEST(sscanf, testStringBuffer) {