diff -r f86d46a580d8 Lib/configparser.py
--- a/Lib/configparser.py	Mon Mar 18 15:20:56 2013 -0700
+++ b/Lib/configparser.py	Mon Mar 18 19:49:51 2013 -0400
@@ -1090,6 +1090,8 @@
                         # match if it would set optval to None
                         if optval is not None:
                             optval = optval.strip()
+                            if optval in ('""', "''"):
+                                optval = ''
                             cursect[optname] = [optval]
                         else:
                             # valueless option handling
diff -r f86d46a580d8 Lib/test/cfgparser.1
--- a/Lib/test/cfgparser.1	Mon Mar 18 15:20:56 2013 -0700
+++ b/Lib/test/cfgparser.1	Mon Mar 18 19:49:51 2013 -0400
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 [Foo Bar]
 foo=newbar
+otherfoo=''
+bar=""
diff -r f86d46a580d8 Lib/test/test_configparser.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_configparser.py	Mon Mar 18 15:20:56 2013 -0700
+++ b/Lib/test/test_configparser.py	Mon Mar 18 19:49:51 2013 -0400
@@ -1447,6 +1447,15 @@
         self.assertIn("foo", parser["Foo Bar"])
         self.assertEqual(parser["Foo Bar"]["foo"], "newbar")
 
+    def test_empty_string_as_value(self):
+        """http://bugs.python.org/issue17453"""
+        file_path = support.findfile("cfgparser.1")
+        parser = configparser.ConfigParser()
+        with open(file_path) as f:
+            parser.read_file(f)
+        self.assertEqual(0, len(parser['Foo Bar']['otherfoo']))
+        self.assertEqual(0, len(parser['Foo Bar']['bar']))
+
 
 class CoverageOneHundredTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     """Covers edge cases in the codebase."""