merge 3.2
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_json/test_decode.py b/Lib/test/test_json/test_decode.py
index d23e285..17245eb 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_json/test_decode.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_json/test_decode.py
@@ -70,5 +70,9 @@
         msg = 'escape'
         self.assertRaisesRegex(ValueError, msg, self.loads, s)
 
+    def test_negative_index(self):
+        d = self.json.JSONDecoder()
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, d.raw_decode, 'a'*42, -50000)
+
 class TestPyDecode(TestDecode, PyTest): pass
 class TestCDecode(TestDecode, CTest): pass
diff --git a/Misc/ACKS b/Misc/ACKS
index 2f3a4d1..ec961e4 100644
--- a/Misc/ACKS
+++ b/Misc/ACKS
@@ -1313,6 +1313,7 @@
 Alex Volkov
 Martijn Vries
 Sjoerd de Vries
+Guido Vranken
 Niki W. Waibel
 Wojtek Walczak
 Charles Waldman
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index cd91546..2ca47f0 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Fix arbitrary memory access in JSONDecoder.raw_decode with a negative second
+  parameter. Bug reported by Guido Vranken.
+
 - Issue #20633: Replace relative import by absolute import.
 
 - Issue #21082: In os.makedirs, do not set the process-wide umask. Note this
diff --git a/Modules/_json.c b/Modules/_json.c
index 9166680..ec980c9 100644
--- a/Modules/_json.c
+++ b/Modules/_json.c
@@ -975,7 +975,10 @@
     kind = PyUnicode_KIND(pystr);
     length = PyUnicode_GET_LENGTH(pystr);
 
-    if (idx >= length) {
+    if (idx < 0)
+        /* Compatibility with Python version. */
+        idx += length;
+    if (idx < 0 || idx >= length) {
         PyErr_SetNone(PyExc_StopIteration);
         return NULL;
     }