diff --git a/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc b/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc
index bb36cb4f66..c3448f1b51 100644
--- a/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc
+++ b/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/appendix-application-properties.adoc
@@ -71,10 +71,10 @@ content into your application; rather pick only the properties that you need.
 	server.ssl.trust-store-type=
 	server.tomcat.access-log-pattern= # log pattern of the access log
 	server.tomcat.access-log-enabled=false # is access logging enabled
-	server.tomcat.internal-proxies=10\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|\
-			192\.168\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|\
-			169\.254\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|\
-			127\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3} # regular expression matching trusted IP addresses
+	server.tomcat.internal-proxies=10\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}|\\
+			192\\.168\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}|\\
+			169\\.254\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}|\\
+			127\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3} # regular expression matching trusted IP addresses
 	server.tomcat.protocol-header=x-forwarded-proto # front end proxy forward header
 	server.tomcat.port-header= # front end proxy port header
 	server.tomcat.remote-ip-header=x-forwarded-for
diff --git a/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/howto.adoc b/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/howto.adoc
index aba4c79111..0cdaf6d038 100644
--- a/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/howto.adoc
+++ b/spring-boot-docs/src/main/asciidoc/howto.adoc
@@ -493,9 +493,13 @@ to `application.properties`, e.g.
 
 [indent=0]
 ----
-	server.tomcat.internal_proxies=192\.168\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}
+	server.tomcat.internal_proxies=192\\.168\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}
 ----
 
+NOTE: The double backslashes are only required when you're using a properties file for
+configuration. If you are using YAML, single backslashes are sufficient and a value
+that's equivalent to the one shown above would be `192\.168\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}`.
+
 Alternatively, you can take complete control of the configuration of the `RemoteIpValve`
 by configuring and adding it in a `TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory` bean.