diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c b/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c
index 36f09b694..09a342836 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c
@@ -2186,7 +2186,7 @@ nm_ip_routing_rule_get_xifname_bin (const NMIPRoutingRule *self,
 	if (!xifname)
 		return FALSE;
 
-	bin = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (xifname, &len, &bin_to_free);
+	bin = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (xifname, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE, &len, &bin_to_free);
 
 	strncpy (out_xifname, bin, 16 /* IFNAMSIZ */);
 	out_xifname[15] = '\0';
diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-utils.c b/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
index 7b69b4ef7..f9bccea93 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
@@ -4673,7 +4673,7 @@ nm_utils_is_valid_iface_name_utf8safe (const char *utf8safe_name)
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (utf8safe_name, FALSE);
 
-	bin = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (utf8safe_name, &len, &bin_to_free);
+	bin = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (utf8safe_name, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE, &len, &bin_to_free);
 
 	if (bin_to_free) {
 		/* some unescaping happened... */
diff --git a/libnm-core/tests/test-general.c b/libnm-core/tests/test-general.c
index 7da247964..52f05dc30 100644
--- a/libnm-core/tests/test-general.c
+++ b/libnm-core/tests/test-general.c
@@ -7815,7 +7815,7 @@ _do_test_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, const char *expected, gsi
 	gs_free gpointer buf_free_1 = NULL;
 	gs_free char *str_free_1 = NULL;
 
-	s = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (str, &l, &buf_free_1);
+	s = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (str, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE, &l, &buf_free_1);
 	g_assert_cmpint (expected_len, ==, l);
 	g_assert_cmpstr (s, ==, expected);
 
@@ -7839,7 +7839,7 @@ _do_test_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, const char *expected, gsi
 	if (   expected
 	    && l == strlen (expected)) {
 		/* there are no embeeded NULs. Check that nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape() yields the same result. */
-		s = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str, &str_free_1);
+		s = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE, &str_free_1);
 		g_assert_cmpstr (s, ==, expected);
 		if (strchr (str, '\\')) {
 			g_assert (str_free_1 != str);
@@ -7908,10 +7908,10 @@ _do_test_utils_str_utf8safe (const char *str, gsize str_len, const char *expecte
 			g_assert (g_utf8_validate (str, -1, NULL));
 		}
 
-		g_assert (str == nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str_safe, &str_free_4));
+		g_assert (str == nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str_safe, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE, &str_free_4));
 		g_assert (!str_free_4);
 
-		str_free_5 = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (str_safe);
+		str_free_5 = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (str_safe, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE);
 		if (str) {
 			g_assert (str_free_5 != str);
 			g_assert_cmpstr (str_free_5, ==, str);
@@ -7935,11 +7935,11 @@ _do_test_utils_str_utf8safe (const char *str, gsize str_len, const char *expecte
 		str_free_6 = g_strcompress (str_safe);
 		g_assert_cmpstr (str, ==, str_free_6);
 
-		str_free_7 = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (str_safe);
+		str_free_7 = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (str_safe, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE);
 		g_assert (str_free_7 != str);
 		g_assert_cmpstr (str_free_7, ==, str);
 
-		s = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str_safe, &str_free_8);
+		s = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str_safe, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE, &str_free_8);
 		g_assert (str_free_8 != str);
 		g_assert (s == str_free_8);
 		g_assert_cmpstr (str_free_8, ==, str);
diff --git a/libnm/nm-libnm-utils.c b/libnm/nm-libnm-utils.c
index 7b4db11ef..f8d1ff560 100644
--- a/libnm/nm-libnm-utils.c
+++ b/libnm/nm-libnm-utils.c
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ _fixup_string (const char *desc,
 		return NULL;
 
 	/* restore original non-UTF-8-safe text. */
-	desc_full = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (desc);
+	desc_full = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (desc, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE);
 
 	/* replace all invalid UTF-8 bytes with space. */
 	p = desc_full;
diff --git a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
index 56729a3b9..96b09b16d 100644
--- a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
+++ b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
@@ -2456,11 +2456,12 @@ _str_buf_append_c_escape_octal (NMStrBuf *strbuf,
 }
 
 gconstpointer
-nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_free)
+nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_free)
 {
+	gboolean strip_spaces = NM_FLAGS_HAS (flags, NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_UNESCAPE_STRIP_SPACES);
 	NMStrBuf strbuf;
-	gsize len;
 	const char *s;
+	gsize len;
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (to_free, NULL);
 	g_return_val_if_fail (out_len, NULL);
@@ -2471,10 +2472,23 @@ nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_fr
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
+	if (strip_spaces)
+		str = nm_str_skip_leading_spaces (str);
+
 	len = strlen (str);
 
 	s = memchr (str, '\\', len);
 	if (!s) {
+		if (   strip_spaces
+		    && len > 0
+		    && g_ascii_isspace (str[len - 1])) {
+			len--;
+			while (   len > 0
+			       && g_ascii_isspace (str[len - 1]))
+				len--;
+			*out_len = len;
+			return (*to_free = g_strndup (str, len));
+		}
 		*out_len = len;
 		*to_free = NULL;
 		return str;
@@ -2494,7 +2508,7 @@ nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_fr
 		ch = (++str)[0];
 
 		if (ch == '\0') {
-			// error. Trailing '\\'
+			/* error. Trailing '\\' */
 			break;
 		}
 
@@ -2533,7 +2547,14 @@ nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_fr
 
 		s = strchr (str, '\\');
 		if (!s) {
-			nm_str_buf_append (&strbuf, str);
+			gsize l = strlen (str);
+
+			if (strip_spaces) {
+				while (   l > 0
+				       && g_ascii_isspace (str[l - 1]))
+					l--;
+			}
+			nm_str_buf_append_len (&strbuf, str, l);
 			break;
 		}
 
@@ -2678,14 +2699,14 @@ nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape_bytes (GBytes *bytes, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags
 /*****************************************************************************/
 
 const char *
-nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, char **to_free)
+nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, char **to_free)
 {
 	const char *res;
 	gsize len;
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (to_free, NULL);
 
-	res = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (str, &len, (gpointer *) to_free);
+	res = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (str, flags, &len, (gpointer *) to_free);
 
 	nm_assert (   (!res && len == 0)
 	           || (strlen (res) <= len));
@@ -2748,11 +2769,11 @@ nm_utils_str_utf8safe_escape_cp (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags)
 }
 
 char *
-nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (const char *str)
+nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags)
 {
 	char *s;
 
-	str = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str, &s);
+	str = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (str, flags, &s);
 	return s ?: g_strdup (str);
 }
 
diff --git a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
index fde1499ab..a2530efaf 100644
--- a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
+++ b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
@@ -1197,17 +1197,25 @@ typedef enum {
 	 * reallocation happens. Thus, unescape always avoids leaking
 	 * secrets already. */
 	NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_SECRET              = 0x0004,
+
+	/* This flag only has an effect during unescaping. It means
+	 * that non-escaped whitespaces (g_ascii_isspace()) will be
+	 * stripped from the front and end of the string. Note that
+	 * this flag is only useful for gracefully accepting user input
+	 * with spaces. With this flag, escape and unescape may no longer
+	 * yield the original input. */
+	NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_UNESCAPE_STRIP_SPACES    = 0x0008,
 } NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags;
 
 const char *nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape (gconstpointer buf, gssize buflen, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, char **to_free);
 const char *nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape_bytes (GBytes *bytes, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, char **to_free);
-gconstpointer nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_free);
+gconstpointer nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_free);
 
 const char *nm_utils_str_utf8safe_escape   (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, char **to_free);
-const char *nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, char **to_free);
+const char *nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, char **to_free);
 
 char *nm_utils_str_utf8safe_escape_cp   (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags);
-char *nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (const char *str);
+char *nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (const char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags);
 
 char *nm_utils_str_utf8safe_escape_take (char *str, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags);
 
diff --git a/src/nm-config.c b/src/nm-config.c
index d63805958..4fa853194 100644
--- a/src/nm-config.c
+++ b/src/nm-config.c
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ no_auto_default_from_file (const char *no_auto_default_file)
 
 	if (list) {
 		for (i = 0; list[i]; i++)
-			list[i] = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (list[i]);
+			list[i] = nm_utils_str_utf8safe_unescape_cp (list[i], NM_UTILS_STR_UTF8_SAFE_FLAG_NONE);
 	}
 
 	/* The returned buffer here is not at all compact. That means, it has additional