diff --git a/src/journal/journald-syslog.c b/src/journal/journald-syslog.c
index 9dea116..97711ac 100644
--- a/src/journal/journald-syslog.c
+++ b/src/journal/journald-syslog.c
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ size_t syslog_parse_identifier(const char **buf, char **identifier, char **pid) 
         e = l;
         l--;
 
-        if (p[l-1] == ']') {
+        if (l > 0 && p[l-1] == ']') {
                 size_t k = l-1;
 
                 for (;;) {
@@ -219,8 +219,8 @@ size_t syslog_parse_identifier(const char **buf, char **identifier, char **pid) 
         if (t)
                 *identifier = t;
 
-        if (strchr(WHITESPACE, p[e]))
-                e++;
+        e += strspn(p + e, WHITESPACE);
+
         *buf = p + e;
         return e;
 }
diff --git a/src/journal/test-journal-syslog.c b/src/journal/test-journal-syslog.c
index 9ba86f6..05f7598 100644
--- a/src/journal/test-journal-syslog.c
+++ b/src/journal/test-journal-syslog.c
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 #include "macro.h"
 #include "string-util.h"
 
-static void test_syslog_parse_identifier(const char* str,
-                                         const char *ident, const char*pid, int ret) {
+static void test_syslog_parse_identifier(const char *str,
+                                         const char *ident, const char *pid, int ret) {
         const char *buf = str;
         _cleanup_free_ char *ident2 = NULL, *pid2 = NULL;
         int ret2;
@@ -21,7 +21,13 @@ static void test_syslog_parse_identifier(const char* str,
 int main(void) {
         test_syslog_parse_identifier("pidu[111]: xxx", "pidu", "111", 11);
         test_syslog_parse_identifier("pidu: xxx", "pidu", NULL, 6);
+        test_syslog_parse_identifier("pidu:  xxx", "pidu", NULL, 7);
         test_syslog_parse_identifier("pidu xxx", NULL, NULL, 0);
+        test_syslog_parse_identifier(":", "", NULL, 1);
+        test_syslog_parse_identifier(":  ", "", NULL, 3);
+        test_syslog_parse_identifier("pidu:", "pidu", NULL, 5);
+        test_syslog_parse_identifier("pidu: ", "pidu", NULL, 6);
+        test_syslog_parse_identifier("pidu : ", NULL, NULL, 0);
 
         return 0;
 }