diff --git a/lib/resty/ldap/filter.lua b/lib/resty/ldap/filter.lua
index 7bb67f9..b064cea 100644
--- a/lib/resty/ldap/filter.lua
+++ b/lib/resty/ldap/filter.lua
@@ -199,21 +199,26 @@ local ESCAPE_MAP = {
     ["="]  = "\\3d",
     ["<"]  = "\\3c",
     [">"]  = "\\3e",
+    ["~"]  = "\\7e",
 }
 
 -- RFC 4515 s3: escape the octets that are special in an assertion value so that
 -- untrusted input cannot change the filter's structure. The compiler un-escapes
 -- \HH back to raw bytes, so escape() is its exact inverse for these octets.
--- The five RFC-mandated specials are `* ( ) \ NUL`; `= < >` are not RFC-special
+-- The five RFC-mandated specials are `* ( ) \ NUL`; `= < > ~` are not RFC-special
 -- but the grammar above is stricter and rejects them raw inside a value, so we
--- escape them too (escaping any octet is RFC-legal and round-trips). Note: valid
--- multi-byte UTF-8 passes through the grammar unescaped; a lone invalid-UTF-8
--- byte (0x80-0xFF) is not escaped here and fails the filter closed.
+-- escape them too (escaping any octet is RFC-legal and round-trips). `~` is the
+-- subtler one: UTF8_FILTERED_CHARACTER excludes it so that `~=` can be read as
+-- the approx operator, and the Cmt that hands a raw `~` back to the value only
+-- fires away from the end of the filter string -- so a leading or trailing `~`
+-- would otherwise fail a value RFC 4515 permits (UTF1SUBSET is %x5D-7F).
+-- Note: valid multi-byte UTF-8 passes through the grammar unescaped; a lone
+-- invalid-UTF-8 byte (0x80-0xFF) is not escaped here and fails the filter closed.
 function _M.escape(value)
     if type(value) ~= "string" then
         return nil, "value must be a string"
     end
-    return (value:gsub("[%z%*%(%)\\=<>]", ESCAPE_MAP))
+    return (value:gsub("[%z%*%(%)\\=<>~]", ESCAPE_MAP))
 end
 
 
diff --git a/t/filter.t b/t/filter.t
index 5626762..b197fef 100644
--- a/t/filter.t
+++ b/t/filter.t
@@ -519,3 +519,35 @@ GET /t
 ok
 --- no_error_log
 [error]
+
+=== TEST 8: escape covers ~, which RFC 4515 allows but the grammar rejects at the edges
+--- http_config eval: $::HttpConfig
+--- config
+    location /t {
+        content_by_lua_block {
+            local filter = require("resty.ldap.filter")
+            assert(filter.escape("a~b") == "a\\7eb", "tilde")
+            -- RFC 4515 UTF1SUBSET (%x5D-7F) includes ~ (0x7e), so these are all
+            -- legal assertion values. The grammar only tolerates a raw ~ mid-value
+            -- and only away from the end of the filter string, so escaping is what
+            -- makes the leading and trailing forms usable.
+            for _, raw in ipairs({ "admin~", "~admin", "ad~min", "admin~~", "~" }) do
+                local ast = assert(filter.compile("(cn=" .. filter.escape(raw) .. ")"),
+                                   "value must compile after escaping: " .. raw)
+                assert(ast.item_type == "simple" and ast.filter_type == "equal",
+                       "simple equality: " .. raw)
+                assert(ast.attribute_value == raw,
+                       "round-trips to raw: " .. tostring(ast.attribute_value))
+            end
+            -- ~= stays an operator: escaping only ever applies to the value
+            local approx = assert(filter.compile("(cn~=admin)"), "approx filter still parses")
+            assert(approx.filter_type == "approx", "filter_type != approx, " .. approx.filter_type)
+            ngx.say("ok")
+        }
+    }
+--- request
+GET /t
+--- response_body
+ok
+--- no_error_log
+[error]