diff --git a/src/Core/StaticConfigTrait.php b/src/Core/StaticConfigTrait.php
index 9cad8477a63..268dcc015a2 100644
--- a/src/Core/StaticConfigTrait.php
+++ b/src/Core/StaticConfigTrait.php
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ public static function configured()
      *
      * @param string $dsn The DSN string to convert to a configuration array
      * @return array The configuration array to be stored after parsing the DSN
-     * @throws \InvalidArgumentException If not passed a string
+     * @throws \InvalidArgumentException If not passed a string, or passed an invalid string
      */
     public static function parseDsn($dsn)
     {
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ public static function parseDsn($dsn)
         preg_match($pattern, $dsn, $parsed);
 
         if (empty($parsed)) {
-            return false;
+            throw new InvalidArgumentException("The DSN string '{$dsn}' could not be parsed.");
         }
         foreach ($parsed as $k => $v) {
             if (is_int($k)) {
diff --git a/tests/TestCase/Datasource/ConnectionManagerTest.php b/tests/TestCase/Datasource/ConnectionManagerTest.php
index 6ec762aaf3d..93fa984e462 100644
--- a/tests/TestCase/Datasource/ConnectionManagerTest.php
+++ b/tests/TestCase/Datasource/ConnectionManagerTest.php
@@ -397,6 +397,18 @@ public function testParseDsn($dsn, $expected)
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $result);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Test parseDsn invalid.
+     *
+     * @expectedException InvalidArgumentException
+     * @expectedExceptionMessage The DSN string 'bagof:nope' could not be parsed.
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function testParseDsnInvalid()
+    {
+        $result = ConnectionManager::parseDsn('bagof:nope');
+    }
+
     /**
      * Tests that directly setting an instance in a config, will not return a different
      * instance later on