diff --git a/maven-model-builder/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizer.java b/maven-model-builder/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizer.java
index 9b9216d8eb21..af445a4137bc 100644
--- a/maven-model-builder/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizer.java
+++ b/maven-model-builder/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizer.java
@@ -43,10 +43,15 @@ public String normalize( String url )
             while ( true )
             {
                 int idx = result.indexOf( "/../" );
-                if ( idx <= 0 )
+                if ( idx < 0 )
                 {
                     break;
                 }
+                else if ( idx == 0 )
+                {
+                    result = result.substring( 3 );
+                    continue;
+                }
                 int parent = idx - 1;
                 while ( parent >= 0 && result.charAt( parent ) == '/' )
                 {
@@ -55,9 +60,12 @@ public String normalize( String url )
                 parent = result.lastIndexOf( '/', parent );
                 if ( parent < 0 )
                 {
-                    break;
+                    result = result.substring( idx + 4 );
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    result = result.substring( 0, parent ) + result.substring( idx + 3 );
                 }
-                result = result.substring( 0, parent ) + result.substring( idx + 3 );
             }
         }
 
diff --git a/maven-model-builder/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizerTest.java b/maven-model-builder/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizerTest.java
index 88fdc9cfb897..095ff6294269 100644
--- a/maven-model-builder/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizerTest.java
+++ b/maven-model-builder/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/model/path/DefaultUrlNormalizerTest.java
@@ -19,45 +19,31 @@
  * under the License.
  */
 
-import junit.framework.TestCase;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNull;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
 
 /**
  * @author Benjamin Bentmann
  */
 public class DefaultUrlNormalizerTest
-    extends TestCase
 {
 
-    private UrlNormalizer normalizer;
-
-    @Override
-    protected void setUp()
-        throws Exception
-    {
-        super.setUp();
-
-        normalizer = new DefaultUrlNormalizer();
-    }
-
-    @Override
-    protected void tearDown()
-        throws Exception
-    {
-        normalizer = null;
-
-        super.tearDown();
-    }
+    private UrlNormalizer normalizer = new DefaultUrlNormalizer();
 
     private String normalize( String url )
     {
         return normalizer.normalize( url );
     }
 
+    @Test
     public void testNullSafe()
     {
         assertNull( normalize( null ) );
     }
 
+    @Test
     public void testTrailingSlash()
     {
         assertEquals( "", normalize( "" ) );
@@ -65,6 +51,7 @@ public void testTrailingSlash()
         assertEquals( "http://server.org/dir/", normalize( "http://server.org/dir/" ) );
     }
 
+    @Test
     public void testRemovalOfParentRefs()
     {
         assertEquals( "http://server.org/child", normalize( "http://server.org/parent/../child" ) );
@@ -74,6 +61,7 @@ public void testRemovalOfParentRefs()
         assertEquals( "http://server.org/child", normalize( "http://server.org/parent//../child" ) );
     }
 
+    @Test
     public void testPreservationOfDoubleSlashes()
     {
         assertEquals( "scm:hg:ssh://localhost//home/user", normalize( "scm:hg:ssh://localhost//home/user" ) );
@@ -82,4 +70,21 @@ public void testPreservationOfDoubleSlashes()
                       normalize( "[fetch=]http://server.org/[push=]ssh://server.org/" ) );
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void absolutePathTraversalPastRootIsOmitted()
+    {
+        assertEquals( "/", normalize("/../" ) );
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void parentDirectoryRemovedFromRelativeUriReference()
+    {
+        assertEquals( "", normalize( "a/../" ) );
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void leadingParentDirectoryNotRemovedFromRelativeUriReference()
+    {
+        assertEquals( "../", normalize( "../" ) );
+    }
 }