diff --git a/pkg/commands/setimagetag.go b/pkg/commands/setimagetag.go
index 63f8eed76..12c23b55f 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/setimagetag.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/setimagetag.go
@@ -18,20 +18,22 @@ package commands
 
 import (
 	"errors"
-	"strings"
+	"regexp"
+	"sort"
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/constants"
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/fs"
 	"github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/pkg/types"
-	"sort"
 )
 
 type setImageTagOptions struct {
 	imageTagMap map[string]string
 }
 
+var pattern = regexp.MustCompile("^(.*):([a-zA-Z0-9._-]*)$")
+
 // newCmdSetImageTag sets the new tags for images in the kustomization.
 func newCmdSetImageTag(fsys fs.FileSystem) *cobra.Command {
 	var o setImageTagOptions
@@ -71,11 +73,11 @@ func (o *setImageTagOptions) Validate(args []string) error {
 	}
 	o.imageTagMap = make(map[string]string)
 	for _, arg := range args {
-		imagetag := strings.Split(arg, ":")
-		if len(imagetag) != 2 {
+		imagetag := pattern.FindStringSubmatch(arg)
+		if len(imagetag) != 3 {
 			return errors.New("Invalid format of imagetag, must specify it as <image>:<newtag>")
 		}
-		o.imageTagMap[imagetag[0]] = imagetag[1]
+		o.imageTagMap[imagetag[1]] = imagetag[2]
 	}
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/commands/setimagetag_test.go b/pkg/commands/setimagetag_test.go
index 7a7287fc6..597decfd4 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/setimagetag_test.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/setimagetag_test.go
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ func TestSetImageTagsHappyPath(t *testing.T) {
 	fakeFS.WriteFile(constants.KustomizationFileName, []byte(kustomizationContent))
 
 	cmd := newCmdSetImageTag(fakeFS)
-	args := []string{"image1:tag1", "image2:tag2"}
+	args := []string{"image1:tag1", "image2:tag2", "localhost:5000/operator:1.0.0"}
 	err := cmd.RunE(cmd, args)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Errorf("unexpected cmd error: %v", err)
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@ imageTags:
   newTag: tag1
 - name: image2
   newTag: tag2
+- name: localhost:5000/operator
+  newTag: 1.0.0
 `)
 	if !strings.Contains(string(content), string(expected)) {
 		t.Errorf("expected imageTags in kustomization file")