diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
index cd78e1cd0..b4ee90943 100644
--- a/Changelog.md
+++ b/Changelog.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 * Make photo upload button hover text translatable [#7429](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/pull/7429)
 * Fix first comment in mobile view with french locale [#7441](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/pull/7441)
 * Use post page title and post author in atom feed [#7420](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/pull/7420)
+* Handle broken public keys when receiving posts [#7448](https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/pull/7448)
 
 ## Features
 
diff --git a/app/models/person.rb b/app/models/person.rb
index 1f86c28bc..f4a5202ad 100644
--- a/app/models/person.rb
+++ b/app/models/person.rb
@@ -229,6 +229,8 @@ class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   def public_key
     OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new(serialized_public_key)
+  rescue OpenSSL::PKey::RSAError
+    nil
   end
 
   def exported_key
diff --git a/config/initializers/diaspora_federation.rb b/config/initializers/diaspora_federation.rb
index 49ff3da6c..aff729ec4 100644
--- a/config/initializers/diaspora_federation.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/diaspora_federation.rb
@@ -72,8 +72,7 @@ DiasporaFederation.configure do |config|
     end
 
     on :fetch_public_key do |diaspora_id|
-      key = Person.find_or_fetch_by_identifier(diaspora_id).serialized_public_key
-      OpenSSL::PKey::RSA.new(key) unless key.nil?
+      Person.find_or_fetch_by_identifier(diaspora_id).public_key
     end
 
     on :fetch_related_entity do |entity_type, guid|
diff --git a/spec/models/person_spec.rb b/spec/models/person_spec.rb
index bb2bb7d6b..f9e76db51 100644
--- a/spec/models/person_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/person_spec.rb
@@ -479,6 +479,19 @@ describe Person, :type => :model do
     end
   end
 
+  describe "#public_key" do
+    it "returns the public key for the person" do
+      key = @person.public_key
+      expect(key).to be_a(OpenSSL::PKey::RSA)
+      expect(key.to_s).to eq(@person.serialized_public_key)
+    end
+
+    it "handles broken keys and returns nil" do
+      @person.update_attributes(serialized_public_key: "broken")
+      expect(@person.public_key).to be_nil
+    end
+  end
+
   context 'people finders for webfinger' do
     let(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) }
     let(:person) { FactoryGirl.create(:person) }