diff --git a/Doc/c-api/unicode.rst b/Doc/c-api/unicode.rst
index 5ab9f1cab23ef8..d17e63dc089b98 100644
--- a/Doc/c-api/unicode.rst
+++ b/Doc/c-api/unicode.rst
@@ -992,11 +992,19 @@ These are the UTF-8 codec APIs:
 
    As :c:func:`PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize`, but does not store the size.
 
+   Raise an exception if the *unicode* string contains embedded null
+   characters. To accept embedded null characters and truncate on purpose
+   at the first null byte, ``PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(unicode, NULL)`` can be
+   used instead.
+
    .. versionadded:: 3.3
 
    .. versionchanged:: 3.7
       The return type is now ``const char *`` rather of ``char *``.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.13
+      Raise an exception if the string contains embedded null characters.
+
 
 UTF-32 Codecs
 """""""""""""
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst
index 804c7a88d94711..34e4d67224b02c 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst
@@ -1109,6 +1109,12 @@ Porting to Python 3.13
   are now undefined by ``<Python.h>``.
   (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :gh:`85283`.)
 
+* The :c:func:`PyUnicode_AsUTF8` function now raises an exception if the string
+  contains embedded null characters. To accept embedded null characters and
+  truncate on purpose at the first null byte,
+  ``PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(unicode, NULL)`` can be used instead.
+  (Contributed by Victor Stinner in :gh:`111089`.)
+
 Deprecated
 ----------
 
diff --git a/Include/cpython/unicodeobject.h b/Include/cpython/unicodeobject.h
index 859ab7178e920a..d67553c6657891 100644
--- a/Include/cpython/unicodeobject.h
+++ b/Include/cpython/unicodeobject.h
@@ -442,18 +442,18 @@ PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject*) PyUnicode_FromKindAndData(
 
 /* --- Manage the default encoding ---------------------------------------- */
 
-/* Returns a pointer to the default encoding (UTF-8) of the
-   Unicode object unicode.
-
-   Like PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(), this also caches the UTF-8 representation
-   in the unicodeobject.
-
-   Use of this API is DEPRECATED since no size information can be
-   extracted from the returned data.
-*/
-
+// Returns a pointer to the default encoding (UTF-8) of the
+// Unicode object unicode.
+//
+// Raise an exception if the string contains embedded null characters.
+// Use PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize() to accept embedded null characters.
+//
+// This function caches the UTF-8 encoded string in the Unicode object
+// and subsequent calls will return the same string. The memory is released
+// when the Unicode object is deallocated.
 PyAPI_FUNC(const char *) PyUnicode_AsUTF8(PyObject *unicode);
 
+
 /* === Characters Type APIs =============================================== */
 
 /* These should not be used directly. Use the Py_UNICODE_IS* and
diff --git a/Include/unicodeobject.h b/Include/unicodeobject.h
index dee00715b3c51d..1e5753dae6ca79 100644
--- a/Include/unicodeobject.h
+++ b/Include/unicodeobject.h
@@ -443,17 +443,15 @@ PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject*) PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(
     PyObject *unicode           /* Unicode object */
     );
 
-/* Returns a pointer to the default encoding (UTF-8) of the
-   Unicode object unicode and the size of the encoded representation
-   in bytes stored in *size.
-
-   In case of an error, no *size is set.
-
-   This function caches the UTF-8 encoded string in the unicodeobject
-   and subsequent calls will return the same string.  The memory is released
-   when the unicodeobject is deallocated.
-*/
-
+// Returns a pointer to the default encoding (UTF-8) of the
+// Unicode object unicode and the size of the encoded representation
+// in bytes stored in `*size` (if size is not NULL).
+//
+// On error, `*size` is set to 0 (if size is not NULL).
+//
+// This function caches the UTF-8 encoded string in the Unicode object
+// and subsequent calls will return the same string. The memory is released
+// when the Unicode object is deallocated.
 #if !defined(Py_LIMITED_API) || Py_LIMITED_API+0 >= 0x030A0000
 PyAPI_FUNC(const char *) PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(
     PyObject *unicode,
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py b/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py
index 3ec27a21b70620..8ab55902b1fd12 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_capi/test_unicode.py
@@ -882,7 +882,10 @@ def test_asutf8(self):
         self.assertEqual(unicode_asutf8('abc', 4), b'abc\0')
         self.assertEqual(unicode_asutf8('абв', 7), b'\xd0\xb0\xd0\xb1\xd0\xb2\0')
         self.assertEqual(unicode_asutf8('\U0001f600', 5), b'\xf0\x9f\x98\x80\0')
-        self.assertEqual(unicode_asutf8('abc\0def', 8), b'abc\0def\0')
+
+        # disallow embedded null characters
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, unicode_asutf8, 'abc\0', 0)
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, unicode_asutf8, 'abc\0def', 0)
 
         self.assertRaises(UnicodeEncodeError, unicode_asutf8, '\ud8ff', 0)
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, unicode_asutf8, b'abc', 0)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/C API/2023-10-20-01-42-43.gh-issue-111089.VIrd5q.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/C API/2023-10-20-01-42-43.gh-issue-111089.VIrd5q.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..2008dd5438d2b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/C API/2023-10-20-01-42-43.gh-issue-111089.VIrd5q.rst	
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+The :c:func:`PyUnicode_AsUTF8` function now raises an exception if the
+string contains embedded null characters. Patch by Victor Stinner.
diff --git a/Objects/typeobject.c b/Objects/typeobject.c
index 3261a14a053dc8..25085693070221 100644
--- a/Objects/typeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/typeobject.c
@@ -3499,13 +3499,14 @@ type_new_set_doc(PyTypeObject *type)
         return 0;
     }
 
-    const char *doc_str = PyUnicode_AsUTF8(doc);
+    Py_ssize_t doc_size;
+    const char *doc_str = PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(doc, &doc_size);
     if (doc_str == NULL) {
         return -1;
     }
 
     // Silently truncate the docstring if it contains a null byte
-    Py_ssize_t size = strlen(doc_str) + 1;
+    Py_ssize_t size = doc_size + 1;
     char *tp_doc = (char *)PyObject_Malloc(size);
     if (tp_doc == NULL) {
         PyErr_NoMemory();
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 33cbc987d43282..d4fdbd22ab7b24 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -3837,7 +3837,13 @@ PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(PyObject *unicode, Py_ssize_t *psize)
 const char *
 PyUnicode_AsUTF8(PyObject *unicode)
 {
-    return PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(unicode, NULL);
+    Py_ssize_t size;
+    const char *utf8 = PyUnicode_AsUTF8AndSize(unicode, &size);
+    if (utf8 != NULL && strlen(utf8) != size) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "embedded null character");
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    return utf8;
 }
 
 /*