diff -r bcf64c1c92f6 Lib/test/test_codecs.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_codecs.py	Wed May 14 21:51:37 2014 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/test_codecs.py	Thu May 15 12:41:51 2014 +0300
@@ -2807,6 +2807,9 @@
             ('[\u20ac]', 'replace', b'[?]'),
             ('[\xff]', 'backslashreplace', b'[\\xff]'),
             ('[\xff]', 'xmlcharrefreplace', b'[ÿ]'),
+            ('\udcff', 'strict', None),
+            ('[\udcff]', 'surrogateescape', b'[\xff]'),
+            ('[\udcff]', 'surrogatepass', None),
         ))
         self.check_decode(932, (
             (b'abc', 'strict', 'abc'),
@@ -2816,6 +2819,7 @@
             (b'[\xff]', 'ignore', '[]'),
             (b'[\xff]', 'replace', '[\ufffd]'),
             (b'[\xff]', 'surrogateescape', '[\udcff]'),
+            (b'[\xff]', 'surrogatepass', None),
             (b'\x81\x00abc', 'strict', None),
             (b'\x81\x00abc', 'ignore', '\x00abc'),
             (b'\x81\x00abc', 'replace', '\ufffd\x00abc'),
@@ -2826,14 +2830,23 @@
             ('abc', 'strict', b'abc'),
             ('\xe9\u20ac', 'strict',  b'\xe9\x80'),
             ('\xff', 'strict', b'\xff'),
+            # test error handlers
             ('\u0141', 'strict', None),
             ('\u0141', 'ignore', b''),
             ('\u0141', 'replace', b'L'),
+            ('\udc98', 'surrogateescape', b'\x98'),
+            ('\udc98', 'surrogatepass', None),
         ))
         self.check_decode(1252, (
             (b'abc', 'strict', 'abc'),
             (b'\xe9\x80', 'strict', '\xe9\u20ac'),
             (b'\xff', 'strict', '\xff'),
+            # invalid bytes
+            (b'[\x98]', 'strict', None),
+            (b'[\x98]', 'ignore', '[]'),
+            (b'[\x98]', 'replace', '[\ufffd]'),
+            (b'[\x98]', 'surrogateescape', '[\udc98]'),
+            (b'[\x98]', 'surrogatepass', None),
         ))
 
     def test_cp_utf7(self):
diff -r bcf64c1c92f6 Python/codecs.c
--- a/Python/codecs.c	Wed May 14 21:51:37 2014 +0300
+++ b/Python/codecs.c	Thu May 15 12:41:51 2014 +0300
@@ -901,6 +901,7 @@
     }
 }
 
+#define ENC_UNKNOWN     -1
 #define ENC_UTF8        0
 #define ENC_UTF16BE     1
 #define ENC_UTF16LE     2
@@ -916,7 +917,11 @@
         encoding += 3;
         if (*encoding == '-' || *encoding == '_' )
             encoding++;
-        if (encoding[0] == '1' && encoding[1] == '6') {
+        if (encoding[0] == '8' && encoding[1] == '\0') {
+            *bytelength = 3;
+            return ENC_UTF8;
+        }
+        else if (encoding[0] == '1' && encoding[1] == '6') {
             encoding += 2;
             *bytelength = 2;
             if (*encoding == '\0') {
@@ -955,9 +960,7 @@
             }
         }
     }
-    /* utf-8 */
-    *bytelength = 3;
-    return ENC_UTF8;
+    return ENC_UNKNOWN;
 }
 
 /* This handler is declared static until someone demonstrates
@@ -994,6 +997,12 @@
         }
         code = get_standard_encoding(encoding, &bytelength);
         Py_DECREF(encode);
+        if (code == ENC_UNKNOWN) {
+            /* Not supported, fail with original exception */
+            PyErr_SetObject(PyExceptionInstance_Class(exc), exc);
+            Py_DECREF(object);
+            return NULL;
+        }
 
         res = PyBytes_FromStringAndSize(NULL, bytelength*(end-start));
         if (!res) {
@@ -1068,6 +1077,12 @@
         }
         code = get_standard_encoding(encoding, &bytelength);
         Py_DECREF(encode);
+        if (code == ENC_UNKNOWN) {
+            /* Not supported, fail with original exception */
+            PyErr_SetObject(PyExceptionInstance_Class(exc), exc);
+            Py_DECREF(object);
+            return NULL;
+        }
 
         /* Try decoding a single surrogate character. If
            there are more, let the codec call us again. */