diff -r e281a57d5b29 Doc/library/socket.rst
--- a/Doc/library/socket.rst	Tue Apr 19 08:53:14 2016 +0200
+++ b/Doc/library/socket.rst	Wed Apr 20 20:55:20 2016 +0200
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
 - The address of an :const:`AF_UNIX` socket bound to a file system node
   is represented as a string, using the file system encoding and the
   ``'surrogateescape'`` error handler (see :pep:`383`).  An address in
-  Linux's abstract namespace is returned as a :term:`bytes-like object` with
+  Linux's abstract namespace is also represented as a string with
   an initial null byte; note that sockets in this namespace can
   communicate with normal file system sockets, so programs intended to
   run on Linux may need to deal with both types of address.  A string or
diff -r e281a57d5b29 Lib/test/test_logging.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_logging.py	Tue Apr 19 08:53:14 2016 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_logging.py	Wed Apr 20 20:55:20 2016 +0200
@@ -1619,6 +1619,24 @@
         SysLogHandlerTest.tearDown(self)
         os.remove(self.address)
 
+@unittest.skipUnless(hasattr(socket, "AF_UNIX"), "Unix sockets required")
+@unittest.skipUnless(threading, 'Threading required for this test.')
+@unittest.skipUnless(sys.platform == 'linux', 'Linux specific test')
+class UnixSysLogAbstractNamespaceHandlerTest(SysLogHandlerTest):
+
+    """Test for SysLogHandler with Unix sockets in the abstract namespace."""
+
+    if threading and hasattr(socket, "AF_UNIX"):
+        server_class = TestUnixDatagramServer
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        # override the definition in the base class
+        self.address = '\x00python_logging_test'
+        SysLogHandlerTest.setUp(self)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        SysLogHandlerTest.tearDown(self)
+
 @unittest.skipUnless(threading, 'Threading required for this test.')
 class HTTPHandlerTest(BaseTest):
     """Test for HTTPHandler."""
@@ -4187,7 +4205,7 @@
         ExceptionTest, SysLogHandlerTest, HTTPHandlerTest,
         NTEventLogHandlerTest, TimedRotatingFileHandlerTest,
         UnixSocketHandlerTest, UnixDatagramHandlerTest, UnixSysLogHandlerTest,
-        MiscTestCase)
+        UnixSysLogAbstractNamespaceHandlerTest, MiscTestCase)
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     test_main()
diff -r e281a57d5b29 Lib/test/test_socket.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_socket.py	Tue Apr 19 08:53:14 2016 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_socket.py	Wed Apr 20 20:55:20 2016 +0200
@@ -4512,7 +4512,7 @@
     UNIX_PATH_MAX = 108
 
     def testLinuxAbstractNamespace(self):
-        address = b"\x00python-test-hello\x00\xff"
+        address = "\x00python-test-hello\x00\xff"
         with socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as s1:
             s1.bind(address)
             s1.listen()
@@ -4523,7 +4523,7 @@
                     self.assertEqual(s2.getpeername(), address)
 
     def testMaxName(self):
-        address = b"\x00" + b"h" * (self.UNIX_PATH_MAX - 1)
+        address = "\x00" + "h" * (self.UNIX_PATH_MAX - 1)
         with socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as s:
             s.bind(address)
             self.assertEqual(s.getsockname(), address)
@@ -4538,7 +4538,16 @@
         s = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
         try:
             s.bind("\x00python\x00test\x00")
-            self.assertEqual(s.getsockname(), b"\x00python\x00test\x00")
+            self.assertEqual(s.getsockname(), "\x00python\x00test\x00")
+        finally:
+            s.close()
+
+    def testBytesName(self):
+        # Check that an abstract name can be passed as a bytes instance.
+        s = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+        try:
+            s.bind(b"\x00python\x00test\x00")
+            self.assertEqual(s.getsockname(), "\x00python\x00test\x00")
         finally:
             s.close()
 
@@ -4546,7 +4555,7 @@
         # Check that an abstract name can be passed as a bytearray.
         with socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as s:
             s.bind(bytearray(b"\x00python\x00test\x00"))
-            self.assertEqual(s.getsockname(), b"\x00python\x00test\x00")
+            self.assertEqual(s.getsockname(), "\x00python\x00test\x00")
 
 @unittest.skipUnless(hasattr(socket, 'AF_UNIX'), 'test needs socket.AF_UNIX')
 class TestUnixDomain(unittest.TestCase):
diff -r e281a57d5b29 Misc/NEWS
--- a/Misc/NEWS	Tue Apr 19 08:53:14 2016 +0200
+++ b/Misc/NEWS	Wed Apr 20 20:55:20 2016 +0200
@@ -245,6 +245,11 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #26803: An AF_UNIX socket address in Linux’s abstract namespace is no
+  longer returned as a bytes object but as a string using the file system
+  encoding and the 'surrogateescape' error handler, same as a plain AF_UNIX
+  address.
+
 - Issue #24838: tarfile's ustar and gnu formats now correctly calculate name
   and link field limits for multibyte character encodings like utf-8.
 
diff -r e281a57d5b29 Modules/socketmodule.c
--- a/Modules/socketmodule.c	Tue Apr 19 08:53:14 2016 +0200
+++ b/Modules/socketmodule.c	Wed Apr 20 20:55:20 2016 +0200
@@ -1183,7 +1183,7 @@
 #ifdef linux
         if (a->sun_path[0] == 0) {  /* Linux abstract namespace */
             addrlen -= offsetof(struct sockaddr_un, sun_path);
-            return PyBytes_FromStringAndSize(a->sun_path, addrlen);
+            return PyUnicode_DecodeFSDefaultAndSize(a->sun_path, addrlen);
         }
         else
 #endif /* linux */