diff --git a/ddclient.in b/ddclient.in
index 380a617..6b6268a 100755
--- a/ddclient.in
+++ b/ddclient.in
@@ -1610,6 +1610,9 @@ sub read_recap {
 ######################################################################
 ## parse_assignments(string) return (rest, %variables)
 ## parse_assignment(string)  return (name, value, rest)
+#
+# Parsing stops upon encountering non-assignment text (e.g., hostname after the assignments) or an
+# unquoted/unescaped newline.
 ######################################################################
 sub parse_assignments {
     my ($rest) = @_;
@@ -1617,7 +1620,7 @@ sub parse_assignments {
 
     while (1) {
         (my $name, my $value, $rest) = parse_assignment($rest);
-        $rest =~ s/^[,\s]+//;
+        $rest =~ s/^(?:[^\S\n]|,)+//;  # Remove leading commas and non-newline whitespace.
         return ($rest, %variables) if !defined($name);
         if ($name eq 'fw-banlocal' || $name eq 'if-skip') {
             warning("'$name' is deprecated and does nothing");
@@ -1631,7 +1634,9 @@ sub parse_assignment {
     my ($name, $value);
     my ($escape, $quote) = (0, '');
 
-    if ($rest =~ /^[,\s]*([a-z][0-9a-z_-]*)=(.*)/i) {
+    # Ignore leading commas and non-newline whitespace.  (An unquoted/unescaped newline terminates
+    # the assignment search.)
+    if ($rest =~ qr/^(?:[^\S\n]|,)*([a-z][0-9a-z_-]*)=(.*)/is) {
         ($name, $rest, $value) = ($1, $2, '');
 
         while (length(my $c = substr($rest, 0, 1))) {
diff --git a/t/parse_assignments.pl b/t/parse_assignments.pl
index d71f4a8..ab965b9 100644
--- a/t/parse_assignments.pl
+++ b/t/parse_assignments.pl
@@ -48,6 +48,10 @@ my @test_cases = (
     tc('env: unset',                 "a_env=UNSET",  {},                     ""),
     tc('env: set',                   "a_env=TEST",   { a => 'val' },         ""),
     tc('env: single quoted',         "a_env='TEST'", { a => 'val' },         ""),
+    tc('newline: quoted value',      "a='1\n2'",     { a => "1\n2" },        ""),
+    tc('newline: escaped value',     "a=1\\\n2",     { a => "1\n2" },        ""),
+    tc('newline: between vars',      "a=1 \n b=2",   { a => '1' },           "\n b=2"),
+    tc('newline: terminating',       "a=1 \n",       { a => '1' },           "\n"),
 );
 
 delete($ENV{''});