diff --git a/lib/command_lex.l b/lib/command_lex.l
index 0a997de8df..47723cbf91 100644
--- a/lib/command_lex.l
+++ b/lib/command_lex.l
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ IPV6            X:X::X:X
 IPV6_PREFIX     X:X::X:X\/M
 VARIABLE        [A-Z][-_a-zA-Z:0-9]+
 NUMBER          [-|+]?[0-9]{1,20}
-RANGE           \({NUMBER}\-{NUMBER}\)
+RANGE           \({NUMBER}[ ]?\-[ ]?{NUMBER}\)
 
 /* yytext shall be a pointer */
 %pointer
diff --git a/lib/command_parse.y b/lib/command_parse.y
index 9d7432ca40..0ea8744346 100644
--- a/lib/command_parse.y
+++ b/lib/command_parse.y
@@ -206,7 +206,11 @@ placeholder_token:
 
   // get the numbers out
   $$->min = strtoimax( yylval.string+1, &yylval.string, 10 );
-  $$->max = strtoimax( yylval.string+1, &yylval.string, 10 );
+  strsep (&yylval.string, "-");
+  $$->max = strtoimax( yylval.string, &yylval.string, 10 );
+
+  // validate range
+  if ($$->min >= $$->max) yyerror("Invalid range.");
 
   free ($1);
 }