diff --git a/wp-includes/formatting.php b/wp-includes/formatting.php
index e10051861e..165cb19f2a 100644
--- a/wp-includes/formatting.php
+++ b/wp-includes/formatting.php
@@ -4653,6 +4653,7 @@ function wp_strip_all_tags($string, $remove_breaks = false) {
  *
  * @since 2.9.0
  *
+ * @see sanitize_textarea_field()
  * @see wp_check_invalid_utf8()
  * @see wp_strip_all_tags()
  *
@@ -4660,16 +4661,75 @@ function wp_strip_all_tags($string, $remove_breaks = false) {
  * @return string Sanitized string.
  */
 function sanitize_text_field( $str ) {
+	$filtered = _sanitize_text_fields( $str, false );
+
+	/**
+	 * Filters a sanitized text field string.
+	 *
+	 * @since 2.9.0
+	 *
+	 * @param string $filtered The sanitized string.
+	 * @param string $str      The string prior to being sanitized.
+	 */
+	return apply_filters( 'sanitize_text_field', $filtered, $str );
+}
+
+/**
+ * Sanitizes a multiline string from user input or from the database.
+ *
+ * The function is like sanitize_text_field(), but preserves
+ * new lines (\n) and other whitespace, which are legitimate
+ * input in textarea elements.
+ *
+ * @see sanitize_text_field()
+ *
+ * @since 4.7.0
+ *
+ * @param string $str String to sanitize.
+ * @return string Sanitized string.
+ */
+function sanitize_textarea_field( $str ) {
+	$filtered = _sanitize_text_fields( $str, true );
+
+	/**
+	 * Filters a sanitized textarea field string.
+	 *
+	 * @since 4.7.0
+	 *
+	 * @param string $filtered The sanitized string.
+	 * @param string $str      The string prior to being sanitized.
+	 */
+	return apply_filters( 'sanitize_textarea_field', $filtered, $str );
+}
+
+/**
+ * Internal helper function to sanitize a string from user input or from the db
+ *
+ * @since 4.7.0
+ * @access private
+ *
+ * @param string $str String to sanitize.
+ * @param bool $keep_newlines optional Whether to keep newlines. Default: false.
+ * @return string Sanitized string.
+ */
+function _sanitize_text_fields( $str, $keep_newlines = false ) {
 	$filtered = wp_check_invalid_utf8( $str );
 
 	if ( strpos($filtered, '<') !== false ) {
 		$filtered = wp_pre_kses_less_than( $filtered );
 		// This will strip extra whitespace for us.
-		$filtered = wp_strip_all_tags( $filtered, true );
-	} else {
-		$filtered = trim( preg_replace('/[\r\n\t ]+/', ' ', $filtered) );
+		$filtered = wp_strip_all_tags( $filtered, false );
+
+		// Use html entities in a special case to make sure no later
+		// newline stripping stage could lead to a functional tag
+		$filtered = str_replace("<\n", "&lt;\n", $filtered);
 	}
 
+	if ( ! $keep_newlines ) {
+		$filtered = preg_replace( '/[\r\n\t ]+/', ' ', $filtered );
+	}
+	$filtered = trim( $filtered );
+
 	$found = false;
 	while ( preg_match('/%[a-f0-9]{2}/i', $filtered, $match) ) {
 		$filtered = str_replace($match[0], '', $filtered);
@@ -4681,15 +4741,7 @@ function sanitize_text_field( $str ) {
 		$filtered = trim( preg_replace('/ +/', ' ', $filtered) );
 	}
 
-	/**
-	 * Filters a sanitized text field string.
-	 *
-	 * @since 2.9.0
-	 *
-	 * @param string $filtered The sanitized string.
-	 * @param string $str      The string prior to being sanitized.
-	 */
-	return apply_filters( 'sanitize_text_field', $filtered, $str );
+	return $filtered;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/wp-includes/version.php b/wp-includes/version.php
index d67ecd238a..a6efb52303 100644
--- a/wp-includes/version.php
+++ b/wp-includes/version.php
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  *
  * @global string $wp_version
  */
-$wp_version = '4.7-alpha-38943';
+$wp_version = '4.7-alpha-38944';
 
 /**
  * Holds the WordPress DB revision, increments when changes are made to the WordPress DB schema.