diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogUtils.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogUtils.scala
index 1fc3a654cfeb..50f32e81d997 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogUtils.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogUtils.scala
@@ -159,6 +159,18 @@ object ExternalCatalogUtils {
       }
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Returns true if `spec1` is a partial partition spec w.r.t. `spec2`, e.g. PARTITION (a=1) is a
+   * partial partition spec w.r.t. PARTITION (a=1,b=2).
+   */
+  def isPartialPartitionSpec(
+      spec1: TablePartitionSpec,
+      spec2: TablePartitionSpec): Boolean = {
+    spec1.forall {
+      case (partitionColumn, value) => spec2(partitionColumn) == value
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 object CatalogUtils {
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/InMemoryCatalog.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/InMemoryCatalog.scala
index d253c72a6273..37e9eeadaad4 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/InMemoryCatalog.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/InMemoryCatalog.scala
@@ -553,18 +553,6 @@ class InMemoryCatalog(
     }
   }
 
-  /**
-   * Returns true if `spec1` is a partial partition spec w.r.t. `spec2`, e.g. PARTITION (a=1) is a
-   * partial partition spec w.r.t. PARTITION (a=1,b=2).
-   */
-  private def isPartialPartitionSpec(
-      spec1: TablePartitionSpec,
-      spec2: TablePartitionSpec): Boolean = {
-    spec1.forall {
-      case (partitionColumn, value) => spec2(partitionColumn) == value
-    }
-  }
-
   override def listPartitionsByFilter(
       db: String,
       table: String,
diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogSuite.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogSuite.scala
index 66e895a4690c..94593ef7efa5 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/catalog/ExternalCatalogSuite.scala
@@ -448,6 +448,18 @@ abstract class ExternalCatalogSuite extends SparkFunSuite with BeforeAndAfterEac
     assert(catalog.listPartitions("db2", "tbl2", Some(Map("a" -> "unknown"))).isEmpty)
   }
 
+  test("SPARK-21457: list partitions with special chars") {
+    val catalog = newBasicCatalog()
+    assert(catalog.listPartitions("db2", "tbl1").isEmpty)
+
+    val part1 = CatalogTablePartition(Map("a" -> "1", "b" -> "i+j"), storageFormat)
+    val part2 = CatalogTablePartition(Map("a" -> "1", "b" -> "i.j"), storageFormat)
+    catalog.createPartitions("db2", "tbl1", Seq(part1, part2), ignoreIfExists = false)
+
+    assert(catalog.listPartitions("db2", "tbl1", Some(part1.spec)).map(_.spec) == Seq(part1.spec))
+    assert(catalog.listPartitions("db2", "tbl1", Some(part2.spec)).map(_.spec) == Seq(part2.spec))
+  }
+
   test("list partitions by filter") {
     val tz = TimeZone.getDefault.getID
     val catalog = newBasicCatalog()
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
index 306b38048e3a..70d7dd23d908 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
@@ -1088,9 +1088,19 @@ private[spark] class HiveExternalCatalog(conf: SparkConf, hadoopConf: Configurat
       table: String,
       partialSpec: Option[TablePartitionSpec] = None): Seq[CatalogTablePartition] = withClient {
     val partColNameMap = buildLowerCasePartColNameMap(getTable(db, table))
-    client.getPartitions(db, table, partialSpec.map(lowerCasePartitionSpec)).map { part =>
+    val res = client.getPartitions(db, table, partialSpec.map(lowerCasePartitionSpec)).map { part =>
       part.copy(spec = restorePartitionSpec(part.spec, partColNameMap))
     }
+
+    partialSpec match {
+      // This might be a bug of Hive: When the partition value inside the partial partition spec
+      // contains dot, and we ask Hive to list partitions w.r.t. the partial partition spec, Hive
+      // treats dot as matching any single character and may return more partitions than we
+      // expected. Here we do an extra filter to drop unexpected partitions.
+      case Some(spec) if spec.exists(_._2.contains(".")) =>
+        res.filter(p => isPartialPartitionSpec(spec, p.spec))
+      case _ => res
+    }
   }
 
   override def listPartitionsByFilter(