diff --git a/Lib/test/test_socket.py b/Lib/test/test_socket.py
index 2f5ed2562f9..e94f5396c50 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_socket.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_socket.py
@@ -1234,9 +1234,15 @@ def testGetaddrinfo(self):
         # Issue #6697.
         self.assertRaises(UnicodeEncodeError, socket.getaddrinfo, 'localhost', '\uD800')
 
-        # Issue 17269
+        # Issue 17269: test workaround for OS X platform bug segfault
         if hasattr(socket, 'AI_NUMERICSERV'):
-            socket.getaddrinfo("localhost", None, 0, 0, 0, socket.AI_NUMERICSERV)
+            try:
+                # The arguments here are undefined and the call may succeed
+                # or fail.  All we care here is that it doesn't segfault.
+                socket.getaddrinfo("localhost", None, 0, 0, 0,
+                                   socket.AI_NUMERICSERV)
+            except socket.gaierror:
+                pass
 
     def test_getnameinfo(self):
         # only IP addresses are allowed
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 71b917086be..84a8a2d3ec8 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -33,6 +33,11 @@ Library
 - Issue #19856: shutil.move() failed to move a directory to other directory
   on Windows if source name ends with os.altsep.
 
+Tests
+-----
+
+- Issue #20605: Make test_socket getaddrinfo OS X segfault test more robust.
+
 
 What's New in Python 3.4.0 release candidate 1?
 ===============================================