diff --git a/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py b/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py
index 4c28688..b304e45 100644
--- a/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py
+++ b/Lib/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py
@@ -600,7 +600,7 @@
             # POST data is normally available through stdin
             try:
                 length = int(os.environ.get('CONTENT_LENGTH', None))
-            except ValueError:
+            except (TypeError, ValueError):
                 length = -1
             if request_text is None:
                 request_text = sys.stdin.read(length)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
index 05154cc..4f057c7 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xmlrpc.py
@@ -629,7 +629,11 @@
         sys.stdin = open("xmldata.txt", "r")
         sys.stdout = open(test_support.TESTFN, "w")
 
-        self.cgi.handle_request()
+        os.environ['CONTENT_LENGTH'] = str(len(data))
+        try:
+            self.cgi.handle_request()
+        finally:
+            del os.environ['CONTENT_LENGTH']
 
         sys.stdin.close()
         sys.stdout.close()