Unterminated JSON strings are misleadingly reported as “Control character error”

[TimWolla]

Description

The following code:

<?php

var_dump(json_decode('"'), json_last_error_msg());

Resulted in this output:

NULL
string(53) "Control character error, possibly incorrectly encoded"

But I expected this output instead: Something about EOF being reached.

PHP Version

PHP 8.5.7 (cli) (built: Jun  6 2026 05:36:56) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Built by Ubuntu
Zend Engine v4.5.7, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.5.7, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Operating System

No response