diff --git a/src/libstrongswan/tests/suites/test_identification.c b/src/libstrongswan/tests/suites/test_identification.c
index b318fc659..1fc98b4a7 100644
--- a/src/libstrongswan/tests/suites/test_identification.c
+++ b/src/libstrongswan/tests/suites/test_identification.c
@@ -80,6 +80,15 @@ START_TEST(test_from_data)
 	ck_assert(chunk_equals(expected, encoding));
 	a->destroy(a);
 
+	/* data that contains 0 characters is not handled with the string parser */
+	expected = chunk_from_chars('f', 'o', 'o', '\0', 'b', 'a', 'r');
+	a = identification_create_from_data(expected);
+	ck_assert(ID_KEY_ID == a->get_type(a));
+	encoding = a->get_encoding(a);
+	ck_assert(expected.ptr != encoding.ptr);
+	ck_assert(chunk_equals(expected, encoding));
+	a->destroy(a);
+
 	/* everything else is handled by the string parser */
 	expected = chunk_from_str("moon@strongswan.org");
 	a = identification_create_from_data(expected);
diff --git a/src/libstrongswan/utils/identification.c b/src/libstrongswan/utils/identification.c
index 35837237c..009b1b724 100644
--- a/src/libstrongswan/utils/identification.c
+++ b/src/libstrongswan/utils/identification.c
@@ -2196,18 +2196,26 @@ identification_t *identification_create_from_string_with_regex(char *string)
  */
 identification_t *identification_create_from_data(chunk_t data)
 {
-	char buf[data.len + 1];
+	identification_t *id;
 
 	if (is_asn1(data) && is_valid_dn(data))
 	{
-		return identification_create_from_encoding(ID_DER_ASN1_DN, data);
+		id = identification_create_from_encoding(ID_DER_ASN1_DN, data);
+	}
+	else if (data.len && memchr(data.ptr, '\0', data.len))
+	{
+		/* treat identities that would get truncated below as opaque blobs */
+		id = identification_create_from_encoding(ID_KEY_ID, data);
 	}
 	else
 	{
-		/* use string constructor */
-		snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%.*s", (int)data.len, data.ptr);
-		return identification_create_from_string(buf);
+		char *str;
+
+		str = strndup(data.ptr, data.len);
+		id = identification_create_from_string(str);
+		free(str);
 	}
+	return id;
 }
 
 /*