diff --git a/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst b/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst
index e8eca74f61..d4b94eec17 100644
--- a/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst
+++ b/doc/whatsnew/2/2.14/full.rst
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ What's New in Pylint 2.14.5?
 Release date: TBA
 
 
+* Fixed handling of ``--`` as separator between positional arguments and flags.
+
+  Closes #7003
 
 What's New in Pylint 2.14.4?
 ----------------------------
diff --git a/pylint/config/config_initialization.py b/pylint/config/config_initialization.py
index af47a4c6bb..7b412f9c24 100644
--- a/pylint/config/config_initialization.py
+++ b/pylint/config/config_initialization.py
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ def _config_initialization(
     unrecognized_options: list[str] = []
     for opt in parsed_args_list:
         if opt.startswith("--"):
-            unrecognized_options.append(opt[2:])
+            if len(opt) > 2:
+                unrecognized_options.append(opt[2:])
         elif opt.startswith("-"):
             unrecognized_options.append(opt[1:])
     if unrecognized_options:
diff --git a/tests/config/test_config.py b/tests/config/test_config.py
index ed0b745ffa..47891aee25 100644
--- a/tests/config/test_config.py
+++ b/tests/config/test_config.py
@@ -116,3 +116,13 @@ def test_short_verbose(capsys: CaptureFixture) -> None:
     Run([str(EMPTY_MODULE), "-v"], exit=False)
     output = capsys.readouterr()
     assert "Using config file" in output.err
+
+
+def test_argument_separator(capsys: CaptureFixture) -> None:
+    """Check that we support using '--' to separate argument types.
+
+    Reported in https://github.com/PyCQA/pylint/issues/7003.
+    """
+    Run(["--", str(EMPTY_MODULE)], exit=False)
+    output = capsys.readouterr()
+    assert not output.err