diff --git a/modules/util/time_str.go b/modules/util/time_str.go
index 81b132c3db3..c498e6ebe13 100644
--- a/modules/util/time_str.go
+++ b/modules/util/time_str.go
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ var timeStrGlobalVars = sync.OnceValue(func() *timeStrGlobalVarsType {
 })
 
 func TimeEstimateParse(timeStr string) (int64, error) {
+	timeStr = strings.TrimSpace(timeStr)
 	if timeStr == "" {
 		return 0, nil
 	}
@@ -51,7 +52,13 @@ func TimeEstimateParse(timeStr string) (int64, error) {
 	if matches[0][0] != 0 || matches[len(matches)-1][1] != len(timeStr) {
 		return 0, fmt.Errorf("invalid time string: %s", timeStr)
 	}
+	prevEnd := 0
 	for _, match := range matches {
+		// only whitespace may separate two units, otherwise the string contains invalid content like "1h x 2m"
+		if strings.TrimSpace(timeStr[prevEnd:match[0]]) != "" {
+			return 0, fmt.Errorf("invalid time string: %s", timeStr)
+		}
+		prevEnd = match[1]
 		amount, err := strconv.ParseInt(timeStr[match[2]:match[3]], 10, 64)
 		if err != nil {
 			return 0, fmt.Errorf("invalid time string: %v", err)
diff --git a/modules/util/time_str_test.go b/modules/util/time_str_test.go
index 8d1de51c8e6..4efe902bee5 100644
--- a/modules/util/time_str_test.go
+++ b/modules/util/time_str_test.go
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ func TestTimeStr(t *testing.T) {
 			{"1s", 1, false},
 			{"1h 1m 1s", 3600 + 60 + 1, false},
 			{"1d1x", 0, true},
+			{"1h 2x 3m", 0, true},
+			{"1h_2m", 0, true},
+			{"1h,1m", 0, true},
 		}
 		for _, test := range tests {
 			t.Run(test.input, func(t *testing.T) {