diff --git a/test/javascripts/lib/markdown-test.js.es6 b/test/javascripts/lib/markdown-test.js.es6
index 067930e7d..56639193e 100644
--- a/test/javascripts/lib/markdown-test.js.es6
+++ b/test/javascripts/lib/markdown-test.js.es6
@@ -119,6 +119,10 @@ test("Links", function() {
 
   cooked("[3]: http://eviltrout.com", "", "It doesn't autolink markdown link references");
 
+  cooked("[]: http://eviltrout.com", "<p>[]: <a href=\"http://eviltrout.com\">http://eviltrout.com</a></p>", "It doesn't accept empty link references");
+
+  cooked("[b]label[/b]: description", "<p><span class=\"bbcode-b\">label</span>: description</p>", "It doesn't accept BBCode as link references");
+
   cooked("http://discourse.org and http://discourse.org/another_url and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2225369",
          "<p><a href=\"http://discourse.org\">http://discourse.org</a> and " +
          "<a href=\"http://discourse.org/another_url\">http://discourse.org/another_url</a> and " +
diff --git a/vendor/assets/javascripts/better_markdown.js b/vendor/assets/javascripts/better_markdown.js
index 5c56a8bde..6d831e5e4 100644
--- a/vendor/assets/javascripts/better_markdown.js
+++ b/vendor/assets/javascripts/better_markdown.js
@@ -1135,7 +1135,7 @@
       },
 
       referenceDefn: function referenceDefn( block, next) {
-        var re = /^\s*\[(.*?)\]:\s*(\S+)(?:\s+(?:(['"])(.*)\3|\((.*?)\)))?\n?/;
+        var re = /^\s*\[([^\[\]]+)\]:\s*(\S+)(?:\s+(?:(['"])(.*)\3|\((.*?)\)))?\n?/;
         // interesting matches are [ , ref_id, url, , title, title ]
 
         if ( !block.match(re) )
@@ -1295,6 +1295,8 @@
           return [ res[0] + 1, text.charAt(0) ].concat(res[2]);
         }
 
+        if ( res[0] == 1 ) { return [ 2, "[]" ]; } // empty link found.
+
         var consumed = 1 + res[ 0 ],
             children = res[ 1 ],
             link,