diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 5b4282a..616d43b 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -59,6 +59,9 @@
 - Issue #5392: when a very low recursion limit was set, the interpreter would
   abort with a fatal error after the recursion limit was hit twice.
 
+- Issue #3845: In PyRun_SimpleFileExFlags avoid invalid memory access with
+  short file names.
+
 Library
 -------
 
diff --git a/Python/pythonrun.c b/Python/pythonrun.c
index 9159b4c..f93403b 100644
--- a/Python/pythonrun.c
+++ b/Python/pythonrun.c
@@ -1145,7 +1145,7 @@
 {
 	PyObject *m, *d, *v;
 	const char *ext;
-	int set_file_name = 0, ret;
+	int set_file_name = 0, ret, len;
 
 	m = PyImport_AddModule("__main__");
 	if (m == NULL)
@@ -1163,7 +1163,8 @@
 		set_file_name = 1;
 		Py_DECREF(f);
 	}
-	ext = filename + strlen(filename) - 4;
+	len = strlen(filename);
+	ext = filename + len - (len > 4 ? 4 : 0);
 	if (maybe_pyc_file(fp, filename, ext, closeit)) {
 		/* Try to run a pyc file. First, re-open in binary */
 		if (closeit)