diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index e16ea49cd..c4e7c8c4a 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@
 - Fixed some memory leaks in case mask-files are used in optimized mode
 - Fixed the 7-Zip parser to allow the entire supported range of encrypted and decrypted data lengths
 - Fixed the validation of the --brain-client-features command line argument (only values 1, 2 or 3 are allowed)
+- Fixed --status-json to correctly escape certain characters in hashes
 
 ##
 ## Improvements
diff --git a/src/terminal.c b/src/terminal.c
index 3a39e3b93..fb68608a7 100644
--- a/src/terminal.c
+++ b/src/terminal.c
@@ -1027,9 +1027,40 @@ void status_display_status_json (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx)
     end = time_now + sec_etc;
   }
 
+  /*
+   * As the hash target can contain the hash (in case of a single attacked hash), especially
+   * some salts can contain chars which need to be escaped to not break the JSON encoding.
+   * Based on https://www.freeformatter.com/json-escape.html, below these 7 different chars
+   * are getting escaped before being printed.
+   */
+
+  char *target_json_encoded = (char *) hcmalloc (strlen (hashcat_status->hash_target) * 2);
+
+  unsigned long i, j;
+
+  for (i = 0, j = 0; i < strlen (hashcat_status->hash_target); i++, j++)
+  {
+    char c = hashcat_status->hash_target[i];
+
+    switch (c)
+    {
+      case '\b': c =  'b'; target_json_encoded[j] = '\\'; j++; break;
+      case '\t': c =  't'; target_json_encoded[j] = '\\'; j++; break;
+      case '\n': c =  'n'; target_json_encoded[j] = '\\'; j++; break;
+      case '\f': c =  'f'; target_json_encoded[j] = '\\'; j++; break;
+      case '\r': c =  'r'; target_json_encoded[j] = '\\'; j++; break;
+      case '\\': c = '\\'; target_json_encoded[j] = '\\'; j++; break;
+      case  '"': c =  '"'; target_json_encoded[j] = '\\'; j++; break;
+    }
+
+    target_json_encoded[j] = c;
+  }
+
+  target_json_encoded[j] = 0;
+
   printf ("{ \"session\": \"%s\",", hashcat_status->session);
   printf (" \"status\": %d,", hashcat_status->status_number);
-  printf (" \"target\": \"%s\",", hashcat_status->hash_target);
+  printf (" \"target\": \"%s\",", target_json_encoded);
   printf (" \"progress\": [%" PRIu64 ", %" PRIu64 "],", hashcat_status->progress_cur_relative_skip, hashcat_status->progress_end_relative_skip);
   printf (" \"restore_point\": %" PRIu64 ",", hashcat_status->restore_point);
   printf (" \"recovered_hashes\": [%d, %d],", hashcat_status->digests_done, hashcat_status->digests_cnt);
@@ -1037,6 +1068,8 @@ void status_display_status_json (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx)
   printf (" \"rejected\": %" PRIu64 ",", hashcat_status->progress_rejected);
   printf (" \"devices\": [");
 
+  free (target_json_encoded);
+
   int device_num = 0;
 
   for (int device_id = 0; device_id < hashcat_status->device_info_cnt; device_id++)