diff --git a/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/Attributes.php b/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/Attributes.php
index 4a138f68299a789615cd991c0e1daacc399f2d4e..00e934f5e192e3332be5078cc7ce493bd8fdef02 100644
--- a/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/Attributes.php
+++ b/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/Attributes.php
@@ -111,24 +111,22 @@ class Attributes
     /**
      * Extract an attribute's namespace, or revert to default.
      *
-     * This function takes in a namespaced attribute name at splits it in a namespace/attribute name tuple.
+     * This function takes in a namespaced attribute name and splits it in a namespace/attribute name tuple.
      * When no namespace is found in the attribute name, it will be namespaced with the default namespace.
      * This default namespace can be overriden by supplying a second parameter to this function.
      *
      * @param string $name The namespaced attribute name.
-     * @param string $namespace The default namespace that should be used when no namespace is found (optional).
+     * @param string $defaultns The default namespace that should be used when no namespace is found.
      *
      * @return array The attribute name, split to the namespace and the actual attribute name.
      */
-    public static function getAttributeNamespace($name, $namespace = 'http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/claims')
+    public static function getAttributeNamespace($name, $defaultns)
     {
         $slash = strrpos($name, '/');
         if ($slash !== false) {
-            $namespace = substr($name, 0, $slash);
+            $defaultns = substr($name, 0, $slash);
             $name = substr($name, $slash + 1);
         }
-        $name = htmlspecialchars($name);
-        $namespace = htmlspecialchars($namespace);
-        return array($namespace, $name);
+        return array(htmlspecialchars($defaultns), htmlspecialchars($name));
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/AttributesTest.php b/tests/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/AttributesTest.php
index 41bf895fe76eebbabda7e5f355052e7261dfa5b4..0dc083314e29e18c55ff6d49ef90a60869c93016 100644
--- a/tests/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/AttributesTest.php
+++ b/tests/lib/SimpleSAML/Utils/AttributesTest.php
@@ -193,4 +193,23 @@ class AttributesTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
             'Attribute array normalization failed'
         );
     }
+
+
+    /**
+     * Test the getAttributeNamespace() function.
+     */
+    public function testNamespacedAttributes()
+    {
+        // test for only the name
+        $this->assertEquals(
+            array('default', 'name'),
+            Attributes::getAttributeNamespace('name', 'default')
+        );
+
+        // test for a given namespace and multiple '/'
+        $this->assertEquals(
+            array('some/namespace', 'name'),
+            Attributes::getAttributeNamespace('some/namespace/name', 'default')
+        );
+    }
 }