diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectCheckerTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectCheckerTest.java
index c6578ccfa..274757d95 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectCheckerTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectCheckerTest.java
@@ -120,6 +120,42 @@ public void testValidCommitBlankAuthor() throws CorruptObjectException {
 		checker.check(Constants.OBJ_COMMIT, data);
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testCommitCorruptAuthor() throws CorruptObjectException {
+		StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
+		b.append("tree be9bfa841874ccc9f2ef7c48d0c76226f89b7189\n");
+		b.append("author b <b@c> <b@c> 0 +0000\n");
+		b.append("committer <> 0 +0000\n");
+
+		byte[] data = Constants.encodeASCII(b.toString());
+		try {
+			checker.checkCommit(data);
+			fail("Did not catch corrupt object");
+		} catch (CorruptObjectException e) {
+			assertEquals("invalid author", e.getMessage());
+		}
+		checker.setAllowInvalidPersonIdent(true);
+		checker.checkCommit(data);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testCommitCorruptCommitter() throws CorruptObjectException {
+		StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
+		b.append("tree be9bfa841874ccc9f2ef7c48d0c76226f89b7189\n");
+		b.append("author <> 0 +0000\n");
+		b.append("committer b <b@c> <b@c> 0 +0000\n");
+
+		byte[] data = Constants.encodeASCII(b.toString());
+		try {
+			checker.checkCommit(data);
+			fail("Did not catch corrupt object");
+		} catch (CorruptObjectException e) {
+			assertEquals("invalid committer", e.getMessage());
+		}
+		checker.setAllowInvalidPersonIdent(true);
+		checker.checkCommit(data);
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void testValidCommit1Parent() throws CorruptObjectException {
 		final StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
@@ -940,7 +976,8 @@ public void testValidTagHasNoTaggerHeader() throws CorruptObjectException {
 	}
 
 	@Test
-	public void testInvalidTagInvalidTaggerHeader1() {
+	public void testInvalidTagInvalidTaggerHeader1()
+			throws CorruptObjectException {
 		final StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
 
 		b.append("object ");
@@ -958,6 +995,8 @@ public void testInvalidTagInvalidTaggerHeader1() {
 		} catch (CorruptObjectException e) {
 			assertEquals("invalid tagger", e.getMessage());
 		}
+		checker.setAllowInvalidPersonIdent(true);
+		checker.checkTag(data);
 	}
 
 	@Test
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectChecker.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectChecker.java
index 8435c9a64..359b59295 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectChecker.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/lib/ObjectChecker.java
@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@ public class ObjectChecker {
 	private final MutableInteger ptrout = new MutableInteger();
 
 	private boolean allowZeroMode;
+
+	private boolean allowInvalidPersonIdent;
 	private boolean windows;
 	private boolean macosx;
 
@@ -124,6 +126,22 @@ public ObjectChecker setAllowLeadingZeroFileMode(boolean allow) {
 		return this;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Enable accepting invalid author, committer and tagger identities.
+	 * <p>
+	 * Some broken Git versions/libraries allowed users to create commits and
+	 * tags with invalid formatting between the name, email and timestamp.
+	 *
+	 * @param allow
+	 *            if true accept invalid person identity strings.
+	 * @return {@code this}.
+	 * @since 4.0
+	 */
+	public ObjectChecker setAllowInvalidPersonIdent(boolean allow) {
+		allowInvalidPersonIdent = allow;
+		return this;
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Restrict trees to only names legal on Windows platforms.
 	 * <p>
@@ -198,6 +216,9 @@ private int id(final byte[] raw, final int ptr) {
 	}
 
 	private int personIdent(final byte[] raw, int ptr) {
+		if (allowInvalidPersonIdent)
+			return nextLF(raw, ptr) - 1;
+
 		final int emailB = nextLF(raw, ptr, '<');
 		if (emailB == ptr || raw[emailB - 1] != '<')
 			return -1;
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BaseReceivePack.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BaseReceivePack.java
index b7a599bad..cf1d92e8e 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BaseReceivePack.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BaseReceivePack.java
@@ -289,6 +289,7 @@ public ReceiveConfig parse(final Config cfg) {
 
 		final boolean checkReceivedObjects;
 		final boolean allowLeadingZeroFileMode;
+		final boolean allowInvalidPersonIdent;
 		final boolean safeForWindows;
 		final boolean safeForMacOS;
 
@@ -306,6 +307,8 @@ public ReceiveConfig parse(final Config cfg) {
 					config.getBoolean("transfer", "fsckobjects", false)); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
 			allowLeadingZeroFileMode = checkReceivedObjects
 					&& config.getBoolean("fsck", "allowLeadingZeroFileMode", false); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
+			allowInvalidPersonIdent = checkReceivedObjects
+					&& config.getBoolean("fsck", "allowInvalidPersonIdent", false); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
 			safeForWindows = checkReceivedObjects
 					&& config.getBoolean("fsck", "safeForWindows", false); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
 			safeForMacOS = checkReceivedObjects
@@ -326,6 +329,7 @@ ObjectChecker newObjectChecker() {
 				return null;
 			return new ObjectChecker()
 				.setAllowLeadingZeroFileMode(allowLeadingZeroFileMode)
+				.setAllowInvalidPersonIdent(allowInvalidPersonIdent)
 				.setSafeForWindows(safeForWindows)
 				.setSafeForMacOS(safeForMacOS);
 		}
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/TransferConfig.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/TransferConfig.java
index 1de91a57e..60043fff7 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/TransferConfig.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/TransferConfig.java
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ public TransferConfig parse(final Config cfg) {
 
 	private final boolean checkReceivedObjects;
 	private final boolean allowLeadingZeroFileMode;
+	private final boolean allowInvalidPersonIdent;
 	private final boolean safeForWindows;
 	private final boolean safeForMacOS;
 	private final boolean allowTipSha1InWant;
@@ -82,6 +83,8 @@ private TransferConfig(final Config rc) {
 				rc.getBoolean("transfer", "fsckobjects", false)); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
 		allowLeadingZeroFileMode = checkReceivedObjects
 				&& rc.getBoolean("fsck", "allowLeadingZeroFileMode", false); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
+		allowInvalidPersonIdent = checkReceivedObjects
+				&& rc.getBoolean("fsck", "allowInvalidPersonIdent", false); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
 		safeForWindows = checkReceivedObjects
 				&& rc.getBoolean("fsck", "safeForWindows", //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
 						SystemReader.getInstance().isWindows());
@@ -113,6 +116,7 @@ public ObjectChecker newObjectChecker() {
 			return null;
 		return new ObjectChecker()
 			.setAllowLeadingZeroFileMode(allowLeadingZeroFileMode)
+			.setAllowInvalidPersonIdent(allowInvalidPersonIdent)
 			.setSafeForWindows(safeForWindows)
 			.setSafeForMacOS(safeForMacOS);
 	}