diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 8bb752715f53..96773f8def19 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1590,6 +1590,7 @@
         AC_CHECK_LIB([htp], [htp_tx_get_response_headers_raw],AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_TX_GET_RESPONSE_HEADERS_RAW],[1],[Found htp_tx_get_response_headers_raw in libhtp]) ,,[-lhtp])
         AC_CHECK_LIB([htp], [htp_decode_query_inplace],AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_DECODE_QUERY_INPLACE],[1],[Found htp_decode_query_inplace function in libhtp]) ,,[-lhtp])
         AC_CHECK_LIB([htp], [htp_config_set_response_decompression_layer_limit],AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_RESPONSE_DECOMPRESSION_LAYER_LIMIT],[1],[Found htp_config_set_response_decompression_layer_limit function in libhtp]) ,,[-lhtp])
+        AC_CHECK_LIB([htp], [htp_config_set_allow_space_uri],AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_ALLOW_SPACE_URI],[1],[Found htp_config_set_allow_space_uri function in libhtp]) ,,[-lhtp])
         AC_EGREP_HEADER(htp_config_set_path_decode_u_encoding, htp/htp.h, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_SET_PATH_DECODE_U_ENCODING],[1],[Found usable htp_config_set_path_decode_u_encoding function in libhtp]) )
         AC_CHECK_LIB([htp], [htp_config_set_lzma_memlimit],AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_LZMA_MEMLIMIT],[1],[Found htp_config_set_lzma_memlimit function in libhtp]) ,,[-lhtp])
         AC_CHECK_LIB([htp], [htp_config_set_lzma_layers],AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_LZMA_LAYERS],[1],[Found htp_config_set_lzma_layers function in libhtp]) ,,[-lhtp])
@@ -1615,6 +1616,7 @@
             AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_DECODE_QUERY_INPLACE],[1],[Assuming htp_decode_query_inplace function in bundled libhtp])
             # enable when libhtp has been updated
             AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_RESPONSE_DECOMPRESSION_LAYER_LIMIT],[1],[Assuming htp_config_set_response_decompression_layer_limit function in bundled libhtp])
+            AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_ALLOW_SPACE_URI],[1],[Assuming htp_config_set_allow_space_uri function in bundled libhtp])
             AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_LZMA_MEMLIMIT],[1],[Assuming htp_config_set_lzma_memlimit function in bundled libhtp])
             AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_LZMA_LAYERS],[1],[Assuming htp_config_set_lzma_layers function in bundled libhtp])
             AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_COMPRESSION_BOMB_LIMIT],[1],[Assuming htp_config_set_compression_bomb_limit function in bundled libhtp])
diff --git a/doc/userguide/upgrade.rst b/doc/userguide/upgrade.rst
index 991e55ae75c1..767df33f1b7b 100644
--- a/doc/userguide/upgrade.rst
+++ b/doc/userguide/upgrade.rst
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ Major changes
   <https://forum.suricata.io/t/my-traffic-gets-blocked-after-upgrading-to-suricata-7>`_.
 - New protocols enabled by default: bittorrent-dht, quic, http2.
 - The telnet protocol is also enabled by default, but only for the ``app-layer``.
+- Spaces are accepted in HTTP1 URIs instead of in the protocol version. That is:
+  `GET /a b HTTP/1.1` gets now URI as `/a b` and protocol as `HTTP/1.1` when
+  it used to be URI as `/a` and protocol as `b HTTP/1.1`
 
 Security changes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/src/app-layer-htp.c b/src/app-layer-htp.c
index b576ba3b7b97..0a647a4d4ae4 100644
--- a/src/app-layer-htp.c
+++ b/src/app-layer-htp.c
@@ -2496,6 +2496,9 @@ static void HTPConfigSetDefaultsPhase1(HTPCfgRec *cfg_prec)
     htp_config_register_response_complete(cfg_prec->cfg, HTPCallbackResponseComplete);
 
     htp_config_set_parse_request_cookies(cfg_prec->cfg, 0);
+#ifdef HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_ALLOW_SPACE_URI
+    htp_config_set_allow_space_uri(cfg_prec->cfg, 1);
+#endif
 
     /* don't convert + to space by default */
     htp_config_set_plusspace_decode(cfg_prec->cfg, HTP_DECODER_URLENCODED, 0);
diff --git a/src/detect-http-protocol.c b/src/detect-http-protocol.c
index 9dc3455d2149..d843d690933f 100644
--- a/src/detect-http-protocol.c
+++ b/src/detect-http-protocol.c
@@ -128,6 +128,30 @@ static InspectionBuffer *GetData2(DetectEngineThreadCtx *det_ctx,
     return buffer;
 }
 
+static bool DetectHttpProtocolValidateCallback(const Signature *s, const char **sigerror)
+{
+#ifdef HAVE_HTP_CONFIG_SET_ALLOW_SPACE_URI
+    for (uint32_t x = 0; x < s->init_data->buffer_index; x++) {
+        if (s->init_data->buffers[x].id != (uint32_t)g_buffer_id)
+            continue;
+        const SigMatch *sm = s->init_data->buffers[x].head;
+        for (; sm != NULL; sm = sm->next) {
+            if (sm->type != DETECT_CONTENT)
+                continue;
+            const DetectContentData *cd = (DetectContentData *)sm->ctx;
+            for (size_t i = 0; i < cd->content_len; ++i) {
+                if (cd->content[i] == ' ') {
+                    *sigerror = "Invalid http.protocol string containing a space";
+                    SCLogWarning("rule %u: %s", s->id, *sigerror);
+                    return false;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+#endif
+    return true;
+}
+
 /**
  * \brief Registers the keyword handlers for the "http.protocol" keyword.
  */
@@ -160,6 +184,7 @@ void DetectHttpProtocolRegister(void)
 
     DetectBufferTypeSetDescriptionByName(BUFFER_NAME,
             BUFFER_DESC);
+    DetectBufferTypeRegisterValidateCallback(BUFFER_NAME, DetectHttpProtocolValidateCallback);
 
     g_buffer_id = DetectBufferTypeGetByName(BUFFER_NAME);
 }