diff --git a/base/linalg/generic.jl b/base/linalg/generic.jl
index 404f96e942285..af37d88723cfe 100644
--- a/base/linalg/generic.jl
+++ b/base/linalg/generic.jl
@@ -273,6 +273,17 @@ function issym(A::AbstractMatrix)
     return true
 end
 
+function issym{T<:FloatingPoint}(A::Union(AbstractMatrix{Complex{T}}, AbstractMatrix{T}))
+    m, n = size(A)
+    m==n || return false
+    for i = 1:(n-1), j = (i+1):n
+        if !isapprox(A[i,j], transpose(A[j,i]))
+            return false
+        end
+    end
+    return true
+end
+
 issym(x::Number) = true
 
 function ishermitian(A::AbstractMatrix)
@@ -286,6 +297,17 @@ function ishermitian(A::AbstractMatrix)
     return true
 end
 
+function ishermitian{T<:FloatingPoint}(A::Union(AbstractMatrix{Complex{T}}, AbstractMatrix{T}))
+    m, n = size(A)
+    m==n || return false
+    for i = 1:n, j = i:n
+        if !isapprox(A[i,j], ctranspose(A[j,i]))
+            return false
+        end
+    end
+    return true
+end
+
 ishermitian(x::Number) = (x == conj(x))
 
 function istriu(A::AbstractMatrix)
diff --git a/base/linalg/symmetric.jl b/base/linalg/symmetric.jl
index 5475c8c9433f0..46cafe6976c5c 100644
--- a/base/linalg/symmetric.jl
+++ b/base/linalg/symmetric.jl
@@ -35,6 +35,10 @@ issym(A::Symmetric) = true
 transpose(A::Symmetric) = A
 ctranspose(A::Hermitian) = A
 
+#Test whether a matrix is positive-definite
+isposdef!(A::HermOrSym) = isposdef!(A.data, symbol(A.uplo))
+isposdef{T}(A::HermOrSym{T}) = (S = typeof(sqrt(one(T))); isposdef!(S == T ? copy(A.data) : convert(AbstractMatrix{S}, A.data), symbol(A.uplo)))
+
 ## Matvec
 A_mul_B!{T<:BlasFloat,S<:AbstractMatrix}(y::StridedVector{T}, A::Symmetric{T,S}, x::StridedVector{T}) = BLAS.symv!(A.uplo, one(T), A.data, x, zero(T), y)
 A_mul_B!{T<:BlasComplex,S<:AbstractMatrix}(y::StridedVector{T}, A::Hermitian{T,S}, x::StridedVector{T}) = BLAS.hemv!(A.uplo, one(T), A.data, x, zero(T), y)
diff --git a/test/linalg4.jl b/test/linalg4.jl
index 9187453c2a73f..86759a03f1f9d 100644
--- a/test/linalg4.jl
+++ b/test/linalg4.jl
@@ -244,3 +244,24 @@ end
 A = eye(4)
 @test diag(A) == ones(4)
 @test diag(sub(A, 1:3, 1:3)) == ones(3)
+
+# Tests for #10298
+for elT in [Float32, Float64]
+    A1 = ones(elT,10,10)
+    A = convert(Array{Complex{elT}}, A1)
+    A[end,1] = Complex{elT}(nextfloat((A[end,1].re)), A[end,1].im)
+    @test issym(A)
+    A = A + triu(A1)im - tril(A1)im
+    @test ishermitian(A)
+    
+    D=diagm(rand(100))*100
+    D[end,1] = nextfloat((D[end,1]))
+
+    for HOrS in [Hermitian, Symmetric]
+        @test isposdef(HOrS(D))
+        @test isposdef!(copy(HOrS(D)))
+    end
+    @test ishermitian(D)
+    @test issym(D)
+    @test isposdef(D)
+end