diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index b049af4323..119d5ae55a 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -215,6 +215,9 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
     HADOOP-8821. Fix findbugs warning related to concatenating string in a 
     for loop in Configuration#dumpDeprecatedKeys(). (suresh)
 
+    HADOOP-7256. Resource leak during failure scenario of closing
+    of resources. (Ramkrishna S. Vasudevan via harsh)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-7761. Improve the performance of raw comparisons. (todd)
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/IOUtils.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/IOUtils.java
index a3315a869e..6be7446c99 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/IOUtils.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/IOUtils.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import java.nio.channels.WritableByteChannel;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceAudience;
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.InterfaceStability;
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@
 @InterfaceAudience.Public
 @InterfaceStability.Evolving
 public class IOUtils {
+  public static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(IOUtils.class);
 
   /**
    * Copies from one stream to another.
@@ -235,7 +237,7 @@ public static void cleanup(Log log, java.io.Closeable... closeables) {
       if (c != null) {
         try {
           c.close();
-        } catch(IOException e) {
+        } catch(Throwable e) {
           if (log != null && log.isDebugEnabled()) {
             log.debug("Exception in closing " + c, e);
           }
@@ -264,6 +266,7 @@ public static void closeSocket(Socket sock) {
       try {
         sock.close();
       } catch (IOException ignored) {
+        LOG.debug("Ignoring exception while closing socket", ignored);
       }
     }
   }
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/TestIOUtils.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/TestIOUtils.java
index b78b1ea9f3..52aa1ccd6d 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/TestIOUtils.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/io/TestIOUtils.java
@@ -66,6 +66,36 @@ public void testCopyBytesShouldCloseInputSteamWhenOutputStreamCloseThrowsExcepti
     Mockito.verify(outputStream, Mockito.atLeastOnce()).close();
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testCopyBytesShouldCloseInputSteamWhenOutputStreamCloseThrowsRunTimeException()
+      throws Exception {
+    InputStream inputStream = Mockito.mock(InputStream.class);
+    OutputStream outputStream = Mockito.mock(OutputStream.class);
+    Mockito.doReturn(-1).when(inputStream).read(new byte[1]);
+    Mockito.doThrow(new RuntimeException()).when(outputStream).close();
+    try {
+      IOUtils.copyBytes(inputStream, outputStream, 1, true);
+      fail("Didn't throw exception");
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+    }
+    Mockito.verify(outputStream, Mockito.atLeastOnce()).close();
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testCopyBytesShouldCloseInputSteamWhenInputStreamCloseThrowsRunTimeException()
+      throws Exception {
+    InputStream inputStream = Mockito.mock(InputStream.class);
+    OutputStream outputStream = Mockito.mock(OutputStream.class);
+    Mockito.doReturn(-1).when(inputStream).read(new byte[1]);
+    Mockito.doThrow(new RuntimeException()).when(inputStream).close();
+    try {
+      IOUtils.copyBytes(inputStream, outputStream, 1, true);
+      fail("Didn't throw exception");
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+    }
+    Mockito.verify(inputStream, Mockito.atLeastOnce()).close();
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testCopyBytesShouldNotCloseStreamsWhenCloseIsFalse()
       throws Exception {
@@ -76,7 +106,7 @@ public void testCopyBytesShouldNotCloseStreamsWhenCloseIsFalse()
     Mockito.verify(inputStream, Mockito.atMost(0)).close();
     Mockito.verify(outputStream, Mockito.atMost(0)).close();
   }
-  
+
   @Test
   public void testCopyBytesWithCountShouldCloseStreamsWhenCloseIsTrue()
       throws Exception {
@@ -117,7 +147,7 @@ public void testCopyBytesWithCountShouldThrowOutTheStreamClosureExceptions()
     Mockito.verify(inputStream, Mockito.atLeastOnce()).close();
     Mockito.verify(outputStream, Mockito.atLeastOnce()).close();
   }
-  
+
   @Test
   public void testWriteFully() throws IOException {
     final int INPUT_BUFFER_LEN = 10000;
@@ -148,6 +178,7 @@ public void testWriteFully() throws IOException {
       for (int i = HALFWAY; i < input.length; i++) {
         assertEquals(input[i - HALFWAY], output[i]);
       }
+      raf.close();
     } finally {
       File f = new File(TEST_FILE_NAME);
       if (f.exists()) {
@@ -177,7 +208,7 @@ public void testWrappedReadForCompressedData() throws IOException {
           "Error while reading compressed data", ioe);
     }
   }
-  
+
   @Test
   public void testSkipFully() throws IOException {
     byte inArray[] = new byte[] {0, 1, 2, 3, 4};