diff --git a/Lib/ConfigParser.py b/Lib/ConfigParser.py
index 65c8ce557db..2902939805e 100644
--- a/Lib/ConfigParser.py
+++ b/Lib/ConfigParser.py
@@ -594,7 +594,8 @@ class SafeConfigParser(ConfigParser):
         self._interpolate_some(option, L, rawval, section, vars, 1)
         return ''.join(L)
 
-    _interpvar_match = re.compile(r"%\(([^)]+)\)s").match
+    _interpvar_re = re.compile(r"%\(([^)]+)\)s")
+    _badpercent_re = re.compile(r"%[^%]|%$")
 
     def _interpolate_some(self, option, accum, rest, section, map, depth):
         if depth > MAX_INTERPOLATION_DEPTH:
@@ -613,7 +614,7 @@ class SafeConfigParser(ConfigParser):
                 accum.append("%")
                 rest = rest[2:]
             elif c == "(":
-                m = self._interpvar_match(rest)
+                m = self._interpvar_re.match(rest)
                 if m is None:
                     raise InterpolationSyntaxError(option, section,
                         "bad interpolation variable reference %r" % rest)
@@ -638,4 +639,12 @@ class SafeConfigParser(ConfigParser):
         """Set an option.  Extend ConfigParser.set: check for string values."""
         if not isinstance(value, basestring):
             raise TypeError("option values must be strings")
+        # check for bad percent signs:
+        # first, replace all "good" interpolations
+        tmp_value = self._interpvar_re.sub('', value)
+        # then, check if there's a lone percent sign left
+        m = self._badpercent_re.search(tmp_value)
+        if m:
+            raise ValueError("invalid interpolation syntax in %r at "
+                             "position %d" % (value, m.start()))
         ConfigParser.set(self, section, option, value)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_cfgparser.py b/Lib/test/test_cfgparser.py
index 9e3b495c5ae..c4df74185e0 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_cfgparser.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_cfgparser.py
@@ -422,6 +422,18 @@ class SafeConfigParserTestCase(ConfigParserTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(cf.get("section", "ok"), "xxx/%s")
         self.assertEqual(cf.get("section", "not_ok"), "xxx/xxx/%s")
 
+    def test_set_malformatted_interpolation(self):
+        cf = self.fromstring("[sect]\n"
+                             "option1=foo\n")
+
+        self.assertEqual(cf.get('sect', "option1"), "foo")
+
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, cf.set, "sect", "option1", "%foo")
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, cf.set, "sect", "option1", "foo%")
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, cf.set, "sect", "option1", "f%oo")
+
+        self.assertEqual(cf.get('sect', "option1"), "foo")
+
     def test_set_nonstring_types(self):
         cf = self.fromstring("[sect]\n"
                              "option1=foo\n")
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index bd672453b61..d29fe4e78ba 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -168,6 +168,10 @@ Core and builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Patch #1603688: ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser now checks values that
+  are set for invalid interpolation sequences that would lead to errors
+  on reading back those values.
+
 - Added support for the POSIX.1-2001 (pax) format to tarfile.py. Extended
   and cleaned up the test suite. Added a new testtar.tar.