diff --git a/src/cowrie/commands/curl.py b/src/cowrie/commands/curl.py
index 8aefd845..8d04ae41 100644
--- a/src/cowrie/commands/curl.py
+++ b/src/cowrie/commands/curl.py
@@ -268,10 +268,13 @@ class Command_curl(HoneyPotCommand):
             self.exit()
             return None
 
-        # TODO: need to do full name resolution.
-        if ipaddress.ip_address(host).is_private:
-            self.errorWrite("curl: (6) Could not resolve host: {}\n".format(host))
-            return None
+        # TODO: need to do full name resolution in case someon passes DNS name pointing to local address
+        try:
+            if ipaddress.ip_address(host).is_private:
+                self.errorWrite("curl: (6) Could not resolve host: {}\n".format(host))
+                return None
+        except ValueError:
+            pass
 
         factory = HTTPProgressDownloader(
             self, fakeoutfile, url, outputfile, *args, **kwargs
diff --git a/src/cowrie/commands/wget.py b/src/cowrie/commands/wget.py
index 95b49fc5..e4cdb694 100644
--- a/src/cowrie/commands/wget.py
+++ b/src/cowrie/commands/wget.py
@@ -154,14 +154,17 @@ class Command_wget(HoneyPotCommand):
             self.errorWrite("HTTP request sent, awaiting response... ")
 
         # TODO: need to do full name resolution.
-        if ipaddress.ip_address(host).is_private:
-            self.errorWrite(
-                "Resolving {} ({})... failed: nodename nor servname provided, or not known.\n".format(
-                    host, host
+        try:
+            if ipaddress.ip_address(host).is_private:
+                self.errorWrite(
+                    "Resolving {} ({})... failed: nodename nor servname provided, or not known.\n".format(
+                        host, host
+                    )
                 )
-            )
             self.errorWrite("wget: unable to resolve host address ‘{}’\n".format(host))
             return None
+        except ValueError:
+            pass
 
         # File in host's fs that will hold content of the downloaded file
         # HTTPDownloader will close() the file object so need to preserve the name