diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 19c81ed8e7..c5e70c6edc 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 4.0.14
+ * Fix text containing "/*" being interpreted as multiline comment in cqlsh (CASSANDRA-17667)
  * Fix indexing of a frozen collection that is the clustering key and reversed (CASSANDRA-19889)
  * Emit error when altering a table with non-frozen UDTs with nested non-frozen collections the same way as done upon table creation (CASSANDRA-19925)
  * Safer handling of out-of-range tokens (CASSANDRA-13704)
diff --git a/bin/cqlsh.py b/bin/cqlsh.py
index dddbd397fa..51a46c7982 100755
--- a/bin/cqlsh.py
+++ b/bin/cqlsh.py
@@ -509,7 +509,6 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
 
         self.statement = StringIO()
         self.lineno = 1
-        self.in_comment = False
 
         self.prompt = ''
         if stdin is None:
@@ -915,30 +914,12 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
                     self.reset_statement()
                     print('')
 
-    def strip_comment_blocks(self, statementtext):
-        comment_block_in_literal_string = re.search('["].*[/][*].*[*][/].*["]', statementtext)
-        if not comment_block_in_literal_string:
-            result = re.sub('[/][*].*[*][/]', "", statementtext)
-            if '*/' in result and '/*' not in result and not self.in_comment:
-                raise SyntaxError("Encountered comment block terminator without being in comment block")
-            if '/*' in result:
-                result = re.sub('[/][*].*', "", result)
-                self.in_comment = True
-            if '*/' in result:
-                result = re.sub('.*[*][/]', "", result)
-                self.in_comment = False
-            if self.in_comment and not re.findall('[/][*]|[*][/]', statementtext):
-                result = ''
-            return result
-        return statementtext
-
     def onecmd(self, statementtext):
         """
         Returns true if the statement is complete and was handled (meaning it
         can be reset).
         """
         statementtext = ensure_text(statementtext)
-        statementtext = self.strip_comment_blocks(statementtext)
         try:
             statements, endtoken_escaped = cqlruleset.cql_split_statements(statementtext)
         except pylexotron.LexingError as e:
diff --git a/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py b/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py
index c45b310215..3d1b16386f 100644
--- a/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py
+++ b/pylib/cqlshlib/cql3handling.py
@@ -162,7 +162,9 @@ syntax_rules = r'''
 <CQL_Statement> ::= [statements]=<statementBody> ";"
                   ;
 
-# the order of these terminal productions is significant:
+# The order of these terminal productions is significant. The input string is matched to the rule
+# specified first in the grammar.
+
 <endline> ::= /\n/ ;
 
 JUNK ::= /([ \t\r\f\v]+|(--|[/][/])[^\n\r]*([\n\r]|$)|[/][*].*?[*][/])/ ;
@@ -172,6 +174,12 @@ JUNK ::= /([ \t\r\f\v]+|(--|[/][/])[^\n\r]*([\n\r]|$)|[/][*].*?[*][/])/ ;
 <quotedStringLiteral> ::= /'([^']|'')*'/ ;
 <pgStringLiteral> ::= /\$\$(?:(?!\$\$).)*\$\$/;
 <quotedName> ::=    /"([^"]|"")*"/ ;
+
+<unclosedPgString>::= /\$\$(?:(?!\$\$).)*/ ;
+<unclosedString>  ::= /'([^']|'')*/ ;
+<unclosedName>    ::= /"([^"]|"")*/ ;
+<unclosedComment> ::= /[/][*].*$/ ;
+
 <float> ::=         /-?[0-9]+\.[0-9]+/ ;
 <uuid> ::=          /[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[0-9a-f]{12}/ ;
 <blobLiteral> ::=    /0x[0-9a-f]+/ ;
@@ -189,11 +197,6 @@ JUNK ::= /([ \t\r\f\v]+|(--|[/][/])[^\n\r]*([\n\r]|$)|[/][*].*?[*][/])/ ;
             | "false"
             ;
 
-<unclosedPgString>::= /\$\$(?:(?!\$\$).)*/ ;
-<unclosedString>  ::= /'([^']|'')*/ ;
-<unclosedName>    ::= /"([^"]|"")*/ ;
-<unclosedComment> ::= /[/][*].*$/ ;
-
 <term> ::= <stringLiteral>
          | <integer>
          | <float>
diff --git a/pylib/cqlshlib/test/test_cql_parsing.py b/pylib/cqlshlib/test/test_cql_parsing.py
index 8631d7aee6..43952a8d7f 100644
--- a/pylib/cqlshlib/test/test_cql_parsing.py
+++ b/pylib/cqlshlib/test/test_cql_parsing.py
@@ -771,6 +771,31 @@ class TestCqlParsing(TestCase):
                                   ('"/*MyTable*/"', 'quotedName'),
                                   (';', 'endtoken')])
 
+        parsed = parse_cqlsh_statements('''
+                                        INSERT into a (key,c1,c2) VALUES ('aKey','v1*/','/v2/*/v3');
+                                        ''')
+
+        self.assertSequenceEqual(tokens_with_types(parsed),
+                                 [('INSERT', 'reserved_identifier'),
+                                  ('into', 'reserved_identifier'),
+                                  ('a', 'identifier'),
+                                  ('(', 'op'),
+                                  ('key', 'identifier'),
+                                  (',', 'op'),
+                                  ('c1', 'identifier'),
+                                  (',', 'op'),
+                                  ('c2', 'identifier'),
+                                  (')', 'op'),
+                                  ('VALUES', 'identifier'),
+                                  ('(', 'op'),
+                                  ("'aKey'", 'quotedStringLiteral'),
+                                  (',', 'op'),
+                                  ("'v1*/'", 'quotedStringLiteral'),
+                                  (',', 'op'),
+                                  ("'/v2/*/v3'", 'quotedStringLiteral'),
+                                  (')', 'op'),
+                                  (';', 'endtoken')])
+
         parse_cqlsh_statements('''
                                */ SELECT FROM "MyTable";
                                ''')