diff --git a/django/core/validators.py b/django/core/validators.py
index e0fd995227..8d87cef412 100644
--- a/django/core/validators.py
+++ b/django/core/validators.py
@@ -66,14 +66,25 @@ class RegexValidator(object):
 
 @deconstructible
 class URLValidator(RegexValidator):
+    ul = '\u00a1-\uffff'  # unicode letters range (must be a unicode string, not a raw string)
+
+    # IP patterns
+    ipv4_re = r'(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[0-1]?\d?\d)(?:\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[0-1]?\d?\d)){3}'
+    ipv6_re = r'\[[0-9a-f:\.]+\]'  # (simple regex, validated later)
+
+    # Host patterns
+    hostname_re = r'[a-z' + ul + r'0-9](?:[a-z' + ul + r'0-9-]*[a-z' + ul + r'0-9])?'
+    domain_re = r'(?:\.[a-z' + ul + r'0-9]+(?:[a-z' + ul + r'0-9-]*[a-z' + ul + r'0-9]+)*)*'
+    tld_re = r'\.[a-z' + ul + r']{2,}\.?'
+    host_re = '(' + hostname_re + domain_re + tld_re + '|localhost)'
+
     regex = re.compile(
         r'^(?:[a-z0-9\.\-]*)://'  # scheme is validated separately
-        r'(?:(?:[A-Z0-9](?:[A-Z0-9-]{0,61}[A-Z0-9])?\.)+(?:[A-Z]{2,6}\.?|[A-Z0-9-]{2,}(?<!-)\.?)|'  # domain...
-        r'localhost|'  # localhost...
-        r'\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|'  # ...or ipv4
-        r'\[?[A-F0-9]*:[A-F0-9:]+\]?)'  # ...or ipv6
-        r'(?::\d+)?'  # optional port
-        r'(?:/?|[/?]\S+)$', re.IGNORECASE)
+        r'(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@)?'  # user:pass authentication
+        r'(?:' + ipv4_re + '|' + ipv6_re + '|' + host_re + ')'
+        r'(?::\d{2,5})?'  # port
+        r'(?:[/?#][^\s]*)?'  # resource path
+        r'$', re.IGNORECASE)
     message = _('Enter a valid URL.')
     schemes = ['http', 'https', 'ftp', 'ftps']
 
@@ -105,6 +116,14 @@ class URLValidator(RegexValidator):
             else:
                 raise
         else:
+            # Now verify IPv6 in the netloc part
+            host_match = re.search(r'^\[(.+)\](?::\d{2,5})?$', urlsplit(value).netloc)
+            if host_match:
+                potential_ip = host_match.groups()[0]
+                try:
+                    validate_ipv6_address(potential_ip)
+                except ValidationError:
+                    raise ValidationError(self.message, code=self.code)
             url = value
 
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/validators.txt b/docs/ref/validators.txt
index a3ac7f88ab..d3df12b618 100644
--- a/docs/ref/validators.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/validators.txt
@@ -149,9 +149,13 @@ to, or in lieu of custom ``field.clean()`` methods.
 .. class:: URLValidator([schemes=None, regex=None, message=None, code=None])
 
     A :class:`RegexValidator` that ensures a value looks like a URL, and raises
-    an error code of ``'invalid'`` if it doesn't. In addition to the optional
-    arguments of its parent :class:`RegexValidator` class, ``URLValidator``
-    accepts an extra optional attribute:
+    an error code of ``'invalid'`` if it doesn't.
+
+    Loopback addresses and reserved IP spaces are considered valid. Literal
+    IPv6 addresses (:rfc:`2732`) and unicode domains are both supported.
+
+    In addition to the optional arguments of its parent :class:`RegexValidator`
+    class, ``URLValidator`` accepts an extra optional attribute:
 
     .. attribute:: schemes
 
@@ -165,6 +169,11 @@ to, or in lieu of custom ``field.clean()`` methods.
 
         The optional ``schemes`` attribute was added.
 
+    .. versionchanged:: 1.8
+
+        Support for IPv6 addresses, unicode domains, and URLs containing
+        authentication data was added.
+
 ``validate_email``
 ------------------
 .. data:: validate_email
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.8.txt b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
index cdb25c4c30..460d637d9d 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.8.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
@@ -606,7 +606,8 @@ Tests
 Validators
 ^^^^^^^^^^
 
-* ...
+* :class:`~django.core.validators.URLValidator` now supports IPv6 addresses,
+  unicode domains, and URLs containing authentication data.
 
 Backwards incompatible changes in 1.8
 =====================================
diff --git a/tests/forms_tests/tests/test_fields.py b/tests/forms_tests/tests/test_fields.py
index a588084843..ea6e842475 100644
--- a/tests/forms_tests/tests/test_fields.py
+++ b/tests/forms_tests/tests/test_fields.py
@@ -896,9 +896,7 @@ class FieldsTests(SimpleTestCase):
         """Test URLField correctly validates IPv6 (#18779)."""
         f = URLField()
         urls = (
-            'http://::/',
-            'http://6:21b4:92/',
-            'http://[12:34:3a53]/',
+            'http://[12:34::3a53]/',
             'http://[a34:9238::]:8080/',
         )
         for url in urls:
diff --git a/tests/validators/invalid_urls.txt b/tests/validators/invalid_urls.txt
index 37c34776d0..e225f256ba 100644
--- a/tests/validators/invalid_urls.txt
+++ b/tests/validators/invalid_urls.txt
@@ -10,3 +10,39 @@ http://inv-.alid-.com
 http://inv-.-alid.com
 file://localhost/path
 git://example.com/
+http://.
+http://..
+http://../
+http://?
+http://??
+http://??/
+http://#
+http://##
+http://##/
+http://foo.bar?q=Spaces should be encoded
+//
+//a
+///a
+///
+http:///a
+foo.com
+rdar://1234
+h://test
+http:// shouldfail.com
+:// should fail
+http://foo.bar/foo(bar)baz quux
+http://-error-.invalid/
+http://-a.b.co
+http://a.b-.co
+http:/
+http://
+http://
+http://1.1.1.1.1
+http://123.123.123
+http://3628126748
+http://123
+http://.www.foo.bar/
+http://.www.foo.bar./
+http://[::1:2::3]:8080/
+http://[]
+http://[]:8080
diff --git a/tests/validators/valid_urls.txt b/tests/validators/valid_urls.txt
index 9f1519c84f..0d1dd779ea 100644
--- a/tests/validators/valid_urls.txt
+++ b/tests/validators/valid_urls.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ http://www.djangoproject.com/
 HTTP://WWW.DJANGOPROJECT.COM/
 http://localhost/
 http://example.com/
+http://example.com./
 http://www.example.com/
 http://www.example.com:8000/test
 http://valid-with-hyphens.com/
@@ -14,3 +15,49 @@ http://example.com/index.php?something=value&another=value2
 https://example.com/
 ftp://example.com/
 ftps://example.com/
+http://foo.com/blah_blah
+http://foo.com/blah_blah/
+http://foo.com/blah_blah_(wikipedia)
+http://foo.com/blah_blah_(wikipedia)_(again)
+http://www.example.com/wpstyle/?p=364
+https://www.example.com/foo/?bar=baz&inga=42&quux
+http://✪df.ws/123
+http://userid:password@example.com:8080
+http://userid:password@example.com:8080/
+http://userid@example.com
+http://userid@example.com/
+http://userid@example.com:8080
+http://userid@example.com:8080/
+http://userid:password@example.com
+http://userid:password@example.com/
+http://142.42.1.1/
+http://142.42.1.1:8080/
+http://➡.ws/䨹
+http://⌘.ws
+http://⌘.ws/
+http://foo.com/blah_(wikipedia)#cite-1
+http://foo.com/blah_(wikipedia)_blah#cite-1
+http://foo.com/unicode_(✪)_in_parens
+http://foo.com/(something)?after=parens
+http://☺.damowmow.com/
+http://code.google.com/events/#&product=browser
+http://j.mp
+ftp://foo.bar/baz
+http://foo.bar/?q=Test%20URL-encoded%20stuff
+http://مثال.إختبار
+http://例子.测试
+http://उदाहरण.परीक्षा
+http://-.~_!$&'()*+,;=:%40:80%2f::::::@example.com
+http://1337.net
+http://a.b-c.de
+http://223.255.255.254
+ftps://foo.bar/
+http://10.1.1.254
+http://[FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210]:80/index.html
+http://[::192.9.5.5]/ipng
+http://[::ffff:192.9.5.5]/ipng
+http://[::1]:8080/
+http://0.0.0.0/
+http://255.255.255.255
+http://224.0.0.0
+http://224.1.1.1