diff --git a/tests/unit/test-cutils.c b/tests/unit/test-cutils.c
index 2cb33e41ae4..f781997aef7 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test-cutils.c
+++ b/tests/unit/test-cutils.c
@@ -2105,6 +2105,7 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_einval(void)
     err = qemu_strtod(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
     g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);

     /* NULL */
@@ -2113,7 +2114,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_einval(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_null(endptr);

     /* not recognizable */
@@ -2123,6 +2125,7 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_einval(void)
     err = qemu_strtod(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
     g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);
 }

@@ -2309,7 +2312,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_einval(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);

     /* NULL */
@@ -2318,7 +2322,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_einval(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_null(endptr);

     /* not recognizable */
@@ -2327,7 +2332,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_einval(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);
 }

@@ -2338,24 +2344,26 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_erange(void)
     int err;
     double res;

-    /* overflow */
+    /* overflow turns into EINVAL */
     str = "9e999";
     endptr = NULL;
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
-    g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -ERANGE);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, HUGE_VAL);
-    g_assert_true(endptr == str + 5);
+    g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
+    g_assert_true(endptr == str);

     str = "-9e+999";
     endptr = NULL;
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
-    g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -ERANGE);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, -HUGE_VAL);
-    g_assert_true(endptr == str + 7);
+    g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
+    g_assert_true(endptr == str);

-    /* underflow */
+    /* underflow is still possible */
     str = "-9e-999";
     endptr = NULL;
     res = 999;
@@ -2380,7 +2388,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_nonfinite(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);

     str = "-infinity";
@@ -2388,7 +2397,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_nonfinite(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);

     /* not a number */
@@ -2397,7 +2407,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_nonfinite(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);
 }

@@ -2421,7 +2432,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_trailing(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, NULL, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 1.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));

     /* trailing e is not an exponent */
     str = ".5e";
@@ -2436,7 +2448,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_trailing(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, NULL, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.5);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));

     /* trailing ( not part of long NaN */
     str = "nan(";
@@ -2444,14 +2457,16 @@ static void test_qemu_strtod_finite_trailing(void)
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
     g_assert_true(endptr == str);

     endptr = NULL;
     res = 999;
     err = qemu_strtod_finite(str, NULL, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, -EINVAL);
-    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 999.0);
+    g_assert_cmpfloat(res, ==, 0.0);
+    g_assert_false(signbit(res));
 }

 static void test_qemu_strtosz_simple(void)
@@ -3063,8 +3078,8 @@ static void test_qemu_strtosz_trailing(void)
     res = 0xbaadf00d;
     err = qemu_strtosz(str, &endptr, &res);
     g_assert_cmpint(err, ==, 0);
-    g_assert_cmpuint(res, ==, EiB /* FIXME EiB * 1.5 */);
-    g_assert(endptr == str + 9 /* FIXME + 4 */);
+    g_assert_cmpuint(res, ==, 1 /* FIXME EiB * 1.5 */);
+    g_assert(endptr == str + 2 /* FIXME + 4 */);

     res = 0xbaadf00d;
     err = qemu_strtosz(str, NULL, &res);
diff --git a/util/cutils.c b/util/cutils.c
index 83948926ec9..0e056a27a44 100644
--- a/util/cutils.c
+++ b/util/cutils.c
@@ -649,12 +649,13 @@ int qemu_strtou64(const char *nptr, const char **endptr, int base,
  *
  * @nptr may be null, and no conversion is performed then.
  *
- * If no conversion is performed, store @nptr in *@endptr and return
- * -EINVAL.
+ * If no conversion is performed, store @nptr in *@endptr, +0.0 in
+ * @result, and return -EINVAL.
  *
  * If @endptr is null, and the string isn't fully converted, return
- * -EINVAL. This is the case when the pointer that would be stored in
- * a non-null @endptr points to a character other than '\0'.
+ * -EINVAL with @result set to the parsed value.  This is the case
+ * when the pointer that would be stored in a non-null @endptr points
+ * to a character other than '\0'.
  *
  * If the conversion overflows, store +/-HUGE_VAL in @result, depending
  * on the sign, and return -ERANGE.
@@ -669,6 +670,7 @@ int qemu_strtod(const char *nptr, const char **endptr, double *result)
     char *ep;

     if (!nptr) {
+        *result = 0.0;
         if (endptr) {
             *endptr = nptr;
         }
@@ -683,24 +685,28 @@ int qemu_strtod(const char *nptr, const char **endptr, double *result)
 /**
  * Convert string @nptr to a finite double.
  *
- * Works like qemu_strtod(), except that "NaN" and "inf" are rejected
- * with -EINVAL and no conversion is performed.
+ * Works like qemu_strtod(), except that "NaN", "inf", and strings
+ * that cause ERANGE overflow errors are rejected with -EINVAL as if
+ * no conversion is performed, storing 0.0 into @result regardless of
+ * any sign.  -ERANGE failures for underflow still preserve the parsed
+ * sign.
  */
 int qemu_strtod_finite(const char *nptr, const char **endptr, double *result)
 {
-    double tmp;
+    const char *tmp;
     int ret;

-    ret = qemu_strtod(nptr, endptr, &tmp);
-    if (!ret && !isfinite(tmp)) {
+    ret = qemu_strtod(nptr, &tmp, result);
+    if (!isfinite(*result)) {
         if (endptr) {
             *endptr = nptr;
         }
+        *result = 0.0;
+        ret = -EINVAL;
+    } else if (endptr) {
+        *endptr = tmp;
+    } else if (*tmp) {
         ret = -EINVAL;
-    }
-
-    if (ret != -EINVAL) {
-        *result = tmp;
     }
     return ret;
 }
