diff --git a/CHANGES/13286.contrib.rst b/CHANGES/13286.contrib.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..45da1b147d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGES/13286.contrib.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Made the test suite skip the symlink tests when the host does not permit creating
+symlinks, rather than failing with ``OSError: [WinError 1314]`` on Windows without
+``SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege`` -- by :user:`Zuhef`.
diff --git a/CHANGES/13294.doc.rst b/CHANGES/13294.doc.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d96752234e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGES/13294.doc.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Corrected the documented default for :class:`~aiohttp.web.WebSocketResponse`'s
+``writer_limit`` parameter, which is ``262144`` (256 KiB) rather than the
+``65536`` (64 KiB) that was previously documented -- by :user:`LALITH0110`.
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
index d273f6b88d2..d843e49b5f9 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@ Konstantin Valetov
 Krzysztof Blazewicz
 Kyrylo Perevozchikov
 Kyungmin Lee
+Lalith Kothuru
 Lars P. Søndergaard
 Lee LieWhite
 Liu Hua
@@ -446,6 +447,7 @@ Yuvi Panda
 Zainab Lawal
 Zeal Wierslee
 Zlatan Sičanica
+Zuhef Ahmed
 Łukasz Setla
 Марк Коренберг
 Семён Марьясин
diff --git a/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py b/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py
index 88934197978..8fef7735436 100644
--- a/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py
+++ b/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@
 _CONNECTION_CLOSED_EXCEPTION = ClientConnectionError("Connection closed")
 _CONTAINS_CONTROL_CHAR_RE = re.compile(r"[^-!#$%&'*+.^_`|~0-9a-zA-Z]")
 _DIGITS_RE = re.compile(r"\d+", re.ASCII)
+_LINK_PARAM_RE = re.compile(r"^([^\s=]+)\s*=\s*(?:(['\"])(.*?)\2|(\S*))$", re.M)
 
 
 @frozen_dataclass_decorator
@@ -497,12 +498,12 @@ def links(self) -> "MultiDictProxy[MultiDictProxy[str | URL]]":
             link: MultiDict[str | URL] = MultiDict()
 
             for param in params:
-                match = re.match(r"^\s*(\S*)\s*=\s*(['\"]?)(.*?)(\2)\s*$", param, re.M)
+                match = _LINK_PARAM_RE.match(param.strip())
                 if match is None:  # Malformed param
                     continue
-                key, _, value, _ = match.groups()
+                key, _, value_quoted, value_unquoted = match.groups()
 
-                link.add(key, value)
+                link.add(key, value_unquoted if value_quoted is None else value_quoted)
 
             key = link.get("rel", url)
 
diff --git a/aiohttp/helpers.py b/aiohttp/helpers.py
index fe5ea9b5ab6..04354988efd 100644
--- a/aiohttp/helpers.py
+++ b/aiohttp/helpers.py
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@
     [ \t]*
     (?:
       "( (?:[^"\\]|\\.)* )"  # group 1: top-level quoted-string
+      [ \t]* (?:,|\Z)
       | (  # group 2: unquoted element
           (?:
             (?<=[^\s]=) {_QUOTED_STRING}  # parameter quoted value
@@ -86,8 +87,8 @@
             | [^,]  # any non-comma character
           )+?
         )
+      (?:,|\Z)
     )
-    [ \t]* (?:,|\Z)
     """,
     re.VERBOSE,
 )
diff --git a/docs/web_reference.rst b/docs/web_reference.rst
index 6b6d6aa06c3..d8913bbe18f 100644
--- a/docs/web_reference.rst
+++ b/docs/web_reference.rst
@@ -970,7 +970,7 @@ and :ref:`aiohttp-web-signals` handlers::
 .. class:: WebSocketResponse(*, timeout=10.0, receive_timeout=None, \
                              autoclose=True, autoping=True, heartbeat=None, \
                              protocols=(), compress=True, max_msg_size=4194304, \
-                             writer_limit=65536, decode_text=True)
+                             writer_limit=262144, decode_text=True)
    :canonical: aiohttp.web_ws.WebSocketResponse
 
    Class for handling server-side websockets, inherited from
@@ -984,7 +984,6 @@ and :ref:`aiohttp-web-signals` handlers::
    To enable back-pressure from slow websocket clients treat methods
    :meth:`ping`, :meth:`pong`, :meth:`send_str`,
    :meth:`send_bytes`, :meth:`send_json`, :meth:`send_frame` as coroutines.
-   By default write buffer size is set to 64k.
 
    :param bool autoping: Automatically send
                          :const:`~aiohttp.WSMsgType.PONG` on
@@ -1029,7 +1028,7 @@ and :ref:`aiohttp-web-signals` handlers::
                            ``request.transport.close()`` to avoid
                            leaking resources.
 
-   :param int writer_limit: maximum size of write buffer, 64 KB by default.
+   :param int writer_limit: maximum size of write buffer, 256 KiB by default.
                             Once the buffer is full, the websocket will pause
                             to drain the buffer.
 
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 524c201983f..6e18199bed6 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -206,6 +206,18 @@ async def loop_debug_mode() -> AsyncIterator[None]:
         loop.set_debug(False)
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def symlinks_supported() -> None:
+    """Skip tests if symlinks not support (e.g. Windows permission problem)."""
+    with TemporaryDirectory() as tmp_dir:
+        target = Path(tmp_dir) / "symlink-target"
+        target.touch()
+        try:
+            (Path(tmp_dir) / "symlink").symlink_to(target)
+        except OSError as exc:  # pragma: no cover
+            pytest.skip(f"requires privilege to create symlinks: {exc}")
+
+
 @pytest.fixture
 def unix_sockname(
     tmp_path: Path, tmp_path_factory: pytest.TempPathFactory
diff --git a/tests/test_benchmarks_client_response.py b/tests/test_benchmarks_client_response.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cc5afc242ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_benchmarks_client_response.py
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+"""codspeed benchmarks for ClientResponse."""
+
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
+import pytest
+
+from aiohttp.client_reqrep import _LINK_PARAM_RE
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from pytest_codspeed import BenchmarkFixture
+else:
+    pytest_codspeed = pytest.importorskip("pytest_codspeed")
+    BenchmarkFixture = pytest_codspeed.BenchmarkFixture
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "value",
+    (
+        pytest.param("\n\t" * 13367 + "\x00", id="embedded_newlines"),
+        pytest.param('\x00="' + "\t" * 14436 + "\x00", id="null_key_quote"),
+        pytest.param(
+            ("a=" * 6000) + "'" + ("b" * 6000) + " " + "b",
+            id="key_swallows_equals",
+        ),
+        pytest.param(
+            "key=" + (" " * 16000) + "'" + ("x" * 16000) + " " + "x",
+            id="whitespace_run_after_equals",
+        ),
+    ),
+)
+def test_link_param_pattern_redos_payload(
+    value: str, benchmark: "BenchmarkFixture"
+) -> None:
+    # None of these payloads describe a valid link param; they must not match.
+    assert _LINK_PARAM_RE.match(value) is None
+
+    @benchmark
+    def _run() -> None:
+        _LINK_PARAM_RE.match(value)
diff --git a/tests/test_benchmarks_helpers.py b/tests/test_benchmarks_helpers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..857380544ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_benchmarks_helpers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+"""codspeed benchmarks for aiohttp.helpers."""
+
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
+import pytest
+
+from aiohttp.helpers import _LIST_ELEMENT_RE
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from pytest_codspeed import BenchmarkFixture
+else:
+    pytest_codspeed = pytest.importorskip("pytest_codspeed")
+    BenchmarkFixture = pytest_codspeed.BenchmarkFixture
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "value",
+    (
+        pytest.param(
+            "a" + (" " * 16000) + "x",
+            id="whitespace_run_after_content",
+        ),
+        pytest.param(
+            r'\="(' * 16309,
+            id="interleaved_quote_paren_triggers",
+        ),
+    ),
+)
+def test_list_element_pattern_redos_payload(
+    value: str, benchmark: "BenchmarkFixture"
+) -> None:
+    assert len(list(_LIST_ELEMENT_RE.finditer(value))) == 1
+
+    @benchmark
+    def _run() -> None:
+        list(_LIST_ELEMENT_RE.finditer(value))
diff --git a/tests/test_urldispatch.py b/tests/test_urldispatch.py
index c0bd809f3a3..3200120593f 100644
--- a/tests/test_urldispatch.py
+++ b/tests/test_urldispatch.py
@@ -464,7 +464,9 @@ def test_add_static_append_version_non_exists_file_without_slash(
 
 
 def test_add_static_append_version_follow_symlink(
-    router: web.UrlDispatcher, tmp_path: pathlib.Path
+    router: web.UrlDispatcher,
+    tmp_path: pathlib.Path,
+    symlinks_supported: None,
 ) -> None:
     # Tests the access to a symlink, in static folder with apeend_version
     symlink_path = tmp_path / "append_version_symlink"
@@ -486,7 +488,9 @@ def test_add_static_append_version_follow_symlink(
 
 
 def test_add_static_append_version_not_follow_symlink(
-    router: web.UrlDispatcher, tmp_path: pathlib.Path
+    router: web.UrlDispatcher,
+    tmp_path: pathlib.Path,
+    symlinks_supported: None,
 ) -> None:
     # Tests the access to a symlink, in static folder with apeend_version
 
diff --git a/tests/test_web_urldispatcher.py b/tests/test_web_urldispatcher.py
index 9fa98637f5e..25802b6bb5c 100644
--- a/tests/test_web_urldispatcher.py
+++ b/tests/test_web_urldispatcher.py
@@ -199,7 +199,9 @@ async def test_access_root_of_static_handler_xss(
 
 
 async def test_follow_symlink(
-    tmp_path: pathlib.Path, aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient
+    tmp_path: pathlib.Path,
+    aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient,
+    symlinks_supported: None,
 ) -> None:
     # Tests the access to a symlink, in static folder
     data = "hello world"
@@ -257,7 +259,9 @@ async def test_follow_symlink_directory_traversal(
 
 
 async def test_follow_symlink_directory_traversal_after_normalization(
-    tmp_path: pathlib.Path, aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient
+    tmp_path: pathlib.Path,
+    aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient,
+    symlinks_supported: None,
 ) -> None:
     # Tests that break_symlink_sandbox does not allow directory transversal
     # after normalization
@@ -518,7 +522,9 @@ def mock_open(self: pathlib.Path, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Any:
 
 
 async def test_access_symlink_loop(
-    tmp_path: pathlib.Path, aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient
+    tmp_path: pathlib.Path,
+    aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient,
+    symlinks_supported: None,
 ) -> None:
     # Tests the access to a looped symlink, which could not be resolved.
     my_dir_path = tmp_path / "my_symlink"
@@ -536,7 +542,9 @@ async def test_access_symlink_loop(
 
 
 async def test_access_compressed_file_as_symlink(
-    tmp_path: pathlib.Path, aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient
+    tmp_path: pathlib.Path,
+    aiohttp_client: AiohttpClient,
+    symlinks_supported: None,
 ) -> None:
     """Test that compressed file variants as symlinks are ignored."""
     private_file = tmp_path / "private.txt"