diff --git a/changes/ticket26004 b/changes/ticket26004
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6b082f145
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/ticket26004
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+  o Minor features (directory authority, forward compatibility):
+    - Make the lines of the measured bandwidth file able to contain their
+      entries in any order. Previously, the node_id entry needed to come
+      first. Closes ticket 26004.
+
diff --git a/src/or/dirserv.c b/src/or/dirserv.c
index e058e04f8..bfcec6e10 100644
--- a/src/or/dirserv.c
+++ b/src/or/dirserv.c
@@ -2459,6 +2459,18 @@ measured_bw_line_parse(measured_bw_line_t *out, const char *orig_line)
   int got_bw = 0;
   int got_node_id = 0;
   char *strtok_state; /* lame sauce d'jour */
+
+  if (strlen(line) == 0) {
+    log_warn(LD_DIRSERV, "Empty line in bandwidth file");
+    tor_free(line);
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  /* Remove end of line character, so that is not part of the token */
+  if (line[strlen(line) - 1] == '\n') {
+    line[strlen(line) - 1] = '\0';
+  }
+
   cp = tor_strtok_r(cp, " \t", &strtok_state);
 
   if (!cp) {
diff --git a/src/test/test_dir.c b/src/test/test_dir.c
index 25b4e4287..77ba6e3bb 100644
--- a/src/test/test_dir.c
+++ b/src/test/test_dir.c
@@ -1501,6 +1501,13 @@ test_dir_measured_bw_kb(void *arg)
                 "bw=1024 junk=007\n",
     "misc=junk node_id=$557365204145532d32353620696e73746561642e  "
                 "bw=1024 junk=007\n",
+    /* check whether node_id can be at the end */
+    "bw=1024 node_id=$557365204145532d32353620696e73746561642e\n",
+    /* check whether node_id can be at the end and bw has something in front*/
+    "foo=bar bw=1024 node_id=$557365204145532d32353620696e73746561642e\n",
+    /* check whether node_id can be at the end and something in the
+     * in the middle of bw and node_id */
+    "bw=1024 foo=bar node_id=$557365204145532d32353620696e73746561642e\n",
     "end"
   };
   const char *lines_fail[] = {