diff --git a/Lib/test/test_locale.py b/Lib/test/test_locale.py
index 8dfaf9052d7..8c17f8770c7 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_locale.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_locale.py
@@ -353,6 +353,17 @@ class TestMiscellaneous(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, locale.strcoll, "a", None)
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, locale.strcoll, b"a", None)
 
+    def test_setlocale_category(self):
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL)
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_TIME)
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_CTYPE)
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_COLLATE)
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_MONETARY)
+        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_NUMERIC)
+
+        # crasher from bug #7419
+        self.assertRaises(locale.Error, locale.setlocale, 12345)
+
 
 def test_main():
     tests = [
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index d3da7b9621f..46a591224bf 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ What's New in Python 3.2 Alpha 1?
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #7419: setlocale() could crash the interpreter on Windows when called
+  with invalid values.
+
 - Issue #6077: On Windows, files opened with tempfile.TemporaryFile in "wt+"
   mode would appear truncated on the first '0x1a' byte (aka. Ctrl+Z).
 
diff --git a/Modules/_localemodule.c b/Modules/_localemodule.c
index fa6ab8fc6d8..aabc3ac8646 100644
--- a/Modules/_localemodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_localemodule.c
@@ -133,6 +133,14 @@ PyLocale_setlocale(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "i|z:setlocale", &category, &locale))
         return NULL;
 
+#if defined(MS_WINDOWS)
+    if (category < LC_MIN || category > LC_MAX)
+    {
+        PyErr_SetString(Error, "invalid locale category");
+        return NULL;
+    }
+#endif
+
     if (locale) {
         /* set locale */
         result = setlocale(category, locale);