diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c b/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c
index 48815c348..d4a38161d 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-setting-ip-config.c
@@ -2954,9 +2954,8 @@ nm_ip_routing_rule_from_string (const char *str,
                                 GError **error)
 {
 	nm_auto_unref_ip_routing_rule NMIPRoutingRule *self = NULL;
-	gs_free char *str_clone = NULL;
-	char *str_remainder;
-	char *str_word;
+	gs_free const char **tokens = NULL;
+	gsize i_token;
 	gboolean any_words = FALSE;
 	char *word0 = NULL;
 	char *word1 = NULL;
@@ -3022,10 +3021,9 @@ nm_ip_routing_rule_from_string (const char *str,
 
 	addr_family = _rr_string_addr_family_from_flags (to_string_flags);
 
-	str_clone = g_strdup (str);
-	str_remainder = str_clone;
-
-	while ((str_word = nm_utils_str_simpletokens_extract_next (&str_remainder))) {
+	tokens = nm_utils_escaped_tokens_split (str, NM_ASCII_SPACES);
+	for (i_token = 0; tokens && tokens[i_token]; i_token++) {
+		char *str_word = (char *) tokens[i_token];
 
 		any_words = TRUE;
 		if (!word0)
@@ -3325,24 +3323,6 @@ _rr_string_append_inet_addr (GString *str,
 	}
 }
 
-static void
-_rr_string_append_escaped (GString *str,
-                           const char *s)
-{
-	for (; s[0]; s++) {
-		/* We need to escape spaces and '\\', because that
-		 * is what nm_utils_str_simpletokens_extract_next() uses to split
-		 * words.
-		 * We also escape ',' because nmcli uses that to concatenate values.
-		 * We also escape ';', in case somebody wants to use ';' instead of ','.
-		 */
-		if (   NM_IN_SET (s[0], '\\', ',', ';')
-		    || g_ascii_isspace (s[0]))
-			g_string_append_c (str, '\\');
-		g_string_append_c (str, s[0]);
-	}
-}
-
 /**
  * nm_ip_routing_rule_to_string:
  * @self: the #NMIPRoutingRule instance to convert to string.
@@ -3486,13 +3466,17 @@ nm_ip_routing_rule_to_string (const NMIPRoutingRule *self,
 	if (self->iifname) {
 		g_string_append (nm_gstring_add_space_delimiter (str),
 		                 "iif ");
-		_rr_string_append_escaped (str, self->iifname);
+		nm_utils_escaped_tokens_escape_gstr (self->iifname,
+		                                     NM_ASCII_SPACES,
+		                                     str);
 	}
 
 	if (self->oifname) {
 		g_string_append (nm_gstring_add_space_delimiter (str),
 		                 "oif ");
-		_rr_string_append_escaped (str, self->oifname);
+		nm_utils_escaped_tokens_escape_gstr (self->oifname,
+		                                     NM_ASCII_SPACES,
+		                                     str);
 	}
 
 	if (self->table != 0) {
diff --git a/libnm-core/tests/test-setting.c b/libnm-core/tests/test-setting.c
index 70c0d6a4c..57af01402 100644
--- a/libnm-core/tests/test-setting.c
+++ b/libnm-core/tests/test-setting.c
@@ -2886,7 +2886,7 @@ test_routing_rule (gconstpointer test_data)
 	char ifname_buf[16];
 
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 from 0.0.0.0 table 1",
-	              "  from 0.0.0\\.0  \\priority  5 lookup 1 ");
+	              "  from 0.0.0.0  priority  5 lookup 1 ");
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 from 0.0.0.0/0 table 4");
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 to 0.0.0.0 table 6");
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 to 0.0.0.0 table 254",
@@ -2905,7 +2905,7 @@ test_routing_rule (gconstpointer test_data)
 	              "priority 5 from :: to ::/0 table 0x19 fwmark 0x00/4294967295");
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 from :: iif aab table 25");
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 from :: iif aab oif er table 25",
-	              "priority 5 from :: table 0x19 dev \\a\\a\\b oif er");
+	              "priority 5 from :: table 0x19 dev aab oif er");
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 from :: iif a\\\\303b table 25");
 	_rr_from_str ("priority 5 to 0.0.0.0 sport 10 table 6",
 	              "priority 5 to 0.0.0.0 sport 10-10 table 6");
@@ -2952,7 +2952,7 @@ test_routing_rule (gconstpointer test_data)
 	g_assert_cmpint (0x10, ==, nm_ip_routing_rule_get_tos (rr1));
 	nm_clear_pointer (&rr1, nm_ip_routing_rule_unref);
 
-	rr1 = _rr_from_str_get ("priority 5 from :: iif a\\\\303\\\\261\\,x\\;b table 254",
+	rr1 = _rr_from_str_get ("priority 5 from :: iif a\\\\303\\\\261,x;b table 254",
 	                        "priority 5 from :: iif a\\\\303\\\\261,x;b table 254");
 	g_assert_cmpstr (nm_ip_routing_rule_get_iifname (rr1), ==, "a\\303\\261,x;b");
 	success = nm_ip_routing_rule_get_xifname_bin (rr1, FALSE, ifname_buf);