diff --git a/docs/releases/4.5.0.rst b/docs/releases/4.5.0.rst
index 7bbb1af66..c9425b7fe 100644
--- a/docs/releases/4.5.0.rst
+++ b/docs/releases/4.5.0.rst
@@ -80,3 +80,4 @@ Other changes
   was added, to force an authoritative database into non-strict mode.
   As it's name notes, this disables many checks and all referential integrity
   and is therefore strongly discouraged.
+* Most non-printable characters are now stripped from all RPSL attribute values.
diff --git a/irrd/rpsl/fields.py b/irrd/rpsl/fields.py
index 204822c73..5f50dde43 100644
--- a/irrd/rpsl/fields.py
+++ b/irrd/rpsl/fields.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import datetime
 import re
+import sys
 from typing import Optional
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
@@ -18,7 +19,7 @@
 
 # This regex is not designed to catch every possible invalid variation,
 # but rather meant to protect against unintentional mistakes.
-#                         # Validate local-part           @ domain         | or IPv4 address        | or IPv6
+#               # Validate local-part           @ domain         | or IPv4 address        | or IPv6
 re_email = re.compile(
     r"^[A-Z0-9$!#%&\"*+\/=?^_`{|}~\\.-]+@(([A-Z0-9\\.-]+)|(\[\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+\])|(\[[A-f\d:]+\]))$",
     re.IGNORECASE,
@@ -54,6 +55,15 @@
 ]
 reserved_prefixes = ["AS-", "RS-", "RTRS-", "FLTR-", "PRNG-"]
 
+ALLOWED_CONTROL_CHARS = {"\n", "\r", "\t", "\u200d"}
+NOPRINT_TRANS_TABLE = str.maketrans(
+    {
+        i: None
+        for i in range(0, sys.maxunicode + 1)
+        if not chr(i).isprintable() and chr(i) not in ALLOWED_CONTROL_CHARS
+    }
+)
+
 """
 Fields for RPSL data.
 
@@ -102,7 +112,7 @@ def __init__(
     def parse(
         self, value: str, messages: RPSLParserMessages, strict_validation=True
     ) -> Optional[RPSLFieldParseResult]:
-        return RPSLFieldParseResult(value)
+        return RPSLFieldParseResult(value.translate(NOPRINT_TRANS_TABLE))
 
 
 class RPSLFieldListMixin:
diff --git a/irrd/rpsl/tests/test_fields.py b/irrd/rpsl/tests/test_fields.py
index eda7ba5a7..13d04527e 100644
--- a/irrd/rpsl/tests/test_fields.py
+++ b/irrd/rpsl/tests/test_fields.py
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ def assert_validation_err(expected_errors, callable, *args, **kwargs):
 def test_rpsl_text_field():
     field = RPSLTextField()
     messages = RPSLParserMessages()
-    assert field.parse("AS-FOO$", messages).value, "AS-FOO$"
+    # U+200F is RTL marker, U+200B zero width space
+    assert field.parse("AS-FOO🎉🏳️‍🌈\u200f\u200b\x07$ \t", messages).value == "AS-FOO🎉🏳️‍🌈$ \t"
     assert not messages.errors()