diff --git a/spring-webmvc/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformer.java b/spring-webmvc/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformer.java
index 35db96db7a..2dac50810d 100644
--- a/spring-webmvc/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformer.java
+++ b/spring-webmvc/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformer.java
@@ -101,7 +101,10 @@ public class CssLinkResourceTransformer implements ResourceTransformer {
 		for (CssLinkInfo info : sortedInfos) {
 			writer.write(content.substring(index, info.getStart()));
 			String link = content.substring(info.getStart(), info.getEnd());
-			String newLink = transformerChain.getResolverChain().resolveUrlPath(link, Arrays.asList(resource));
+			String newLink = null;
+			if(!hasScheme(link)) {
+				newLink = transformerChain.getResolverChain().resolveUrlPath(link, Arrays.asList(resource));
+			}
 			if (logger.isTraceEnabled()) {
 				if (newLink != null && !link.equals(newLink)) {
 					logger.trace("Link modified: " + newLink + " (original: " + link + ")");
@@ -118,6 +121,11 @@ public class CssLinkResourceTransformer implements ResourceTransformer {
 		return new TransformedResource(resource, writer.toString().getBytes(DEFAULT_CHARSET));
 	}
 
+	private boolean hasScheme(String link) {
+		int schemeIndex = link.indexOf(":");
+		return schemeIndex > 0 && !link.substring(0, schemeIndex).contains("/");
+	}
+
 
 	protected static interface CssLinkParser {
 
diff --git a/spring-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformerTests.java b/spring-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformerTests.java
index 6afc078836..a37c7e52da 100644
--- a/spring-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformerTests.java
+++ b/spring-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/CssLinkResourceTransformerTests.java
@@ -17,10 +17,12 @@
 package org.springframework.web.servlet.resource;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.mockito.Mockito;
 
 import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
 import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
@@ -77,8 +79,7 @@ public class CssLinkResourceTransformerTests {
 				"@import url(bar-11e16cf79faee7ac698c805cf28248d2.css);\n\n" +
 				"@import \"foo-e36d2e05253c6c7085a91522ce43a0b4.css\";\n" +
 				"@import 'foo-e36d2e05253c6c7085a91522ce43a0b4.css';\n\n" +
-				"body { background: url(\"images/image-f448cd1d5dba82b774f3202c878230b3.png\") }\n\n" +
-				"li { list-style: url(http://www.example.com/redball.png) disc }\n";
+				"body { background: url(\"images/image-f448cd1d5dba82b774f3202c878230b3.png\") }\n";
 
 		String result = new String(transformedResource.getByteArray(), "UTF-8");
 		result = StringUtils.deleteAny(result, "\r");
@@ -92,4 +93,26 @@ public class CssLinkResourceTransformerTests {
 		assertSame(expected, actual);
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void transformExtLinksNotAllowed() throws Exception {
+		ResourceResolverChain resolverChain = Mockito.mock(DefaultResourceResolverChain.class);
+		ResourceTransformerChain transformerChain = new DefaultResourceTransformerChain(resolverChain,
+				Arrays.asList(new CssLinkResourceTransformer()));
+
+		Resource externalCss = new ClassPathResource("test/external.css", getClass());
+		Resource resource = transformerChain.transform(this.request, externalCss);
+		TransformedResource transformedResource = (TransformedResource) resource;
+
+		String expected = "@import url(\"http://example.org/fonts/css\");\n" +
+				"body { background: url(\"file:///home/spring/image.png\") }";
+		String result = new String(transformedResource.getByteArray(), "UTF-8");
+		result = StringUtils.deleteAny(result, "\r");
+		assertEquals(expected, result);
+
+		Mockito.verify(resolverChain, Mockito.never())
+				.resolveUrlPath("http://example.org/fonts/css", Arrays.asList(externalCss));
+		Mockito.verify(resolverChain, Mockito.never())
+				.resolveUrlPath("file:///home/spring/image.png", Arrays.asList(externalCss));
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/spring-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/PathResourceResolverTests.java b/spring-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/PathResourceResolverTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e119fde68b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-webmvc/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/PathResourceResolverTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+package org.springframework.web.servlet.resource;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
+import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
+
+/**
+ * Unit tests for
+ * {@link org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.PathResourceResolver}.
+ *
+ * @author Brian Clozel
+ */
+public class PathResourceResolverTests {
+
+	private ResourceResolverChain chain;
+
+	private List<Resource> locations;
+
+	@Before
+	public void setup() {
+
+		List<ResourceResolver> resolvers = new ArrayList<>();
+		resolvers.add(new PathResourceResolver());
+		this.chain = new DefaultResourceResolverChain(resolvers);
+
+		this.locations = new ArrayList<>();
+		this.locations.add(new ClassPathResource("test/", getClass()));
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void resolveResourceInternal() {
+		String file = "bar.css";
+		Resource expected = new ClassPathResource("test/" + file, getClass());
+		Resource actual = this.chain.resolveResource(null, file, this.locations);
+
+		assertEquals(expected, actual);
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/spring-webmvc/src/test/resources/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/test/external.css b/spring-webmvc/src/test/resources/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/test/external.css
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..aa0afb2bbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-webmvc/src/test/resources/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/test/external.css
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+@import url("http://example.org/fonts/css");
+body { background: url("file:///home/spring/image.png") }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spring-webmvc/src/test/resources/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/test/main.css b/spring-webmvc/src/test/resources/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/test/main.css
index ac14294bf3..a6265ea7ac 100644
--- a/spring-webmvc/src/test/resources/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/test/main.css
+++ b/spring-webmvc/src/test/resources/org/springframework/web/servlet/resource/test/main.css
@@ -7,5 +7,3 @@
 @import 'foo.css';
 
 body { background: url("images/image.png") }
-
-li { list-style: url(http://www.example.com/redball.png) disc }