diff -r 6f8a5458108d Modules/_dbmmodule.c
--- a/Modules/_dbmmodule.c	Thu Dec 05 16:13:03 2013 +0100
+++ b/Modules/_dbmmodule.c	Thu Dec 05 18:33:50 2013 +0100
@@ -61,12 +61,22 @@
 newdbmobject(const char *file, int flags, int mode)
 {
     dbmobject *dp;
+    char filename[PATH_MAX+1];
+
+    /* Some DBM interfaces have a char* instead of a const char* argument.
+     * See http://bugs.python.org/issue19296 */
+    if (strlen(file) >= sizeof(filename)) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "file name is too long");
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    strncpy(filename, file, PATH_MAX);
+    filename[PATH_MAX] = '\0';
 
     dp = PyObject_New(dbmobject, &Dbmtype);
     if (dp == NULL)
         return NULL;
     dp->di_size = -1;
-    if ( (dp->di_dbm = dbm_open(file, flags, mode)) == 0 ) {
+    if ( (dp->di_dbm = dbm_open(filename, flags, mode)) == 0 ) {
         PyErr_SetFromErrno(DbmError);
         Py_DECREF(dp);
         return NULL;