diff --git a/src/pdag.c b/src/pdag.c
index 44a3847b..3bb06cec 100644
--- a/src/pdag.c
+++ b/src/pdag.c
@@ -1318,6 +1318,34 @@ addUnparsedField(const char *str, const size_t strLen, const size_t offs, struct
 }
 
 
+/**
+ * Add key:value pair to json tree
+ * If the key contains !, it will be added as nested
+ * Ex : a!b=abcd  will be  "a":{"b":"abcd"}
+ */
+static void
+add_json_nested_key_value_pair(struct json_object *json,
+        char *name,
+        struct json_object *value)
+{
+	char *first = NULL;
+	// If the key contains an exclamation char
+	if( (first=strchr(name, '!')) != NULL ) {
+		// Prevent allocation + copy str
+		*first = '\0';
+		struct json_object *subtree;
+		subtree = json_object_new_object();
+		add_json_nested_key_value_pair(subtree, first+1, value);
+		json_object_object_add(json, name, subtree);
+		// Re-set the modified char above
+		*first = '!';
+	} else {
+		json_object_object_add_ex(json, name, value,
+								  JSON_C_OBJECT_ADD_KEY_IS_NEW|JSON_C_OBJECT_KEY_IS_CONSTANT);
+	}
+}
+
+
 /* Do some fixup to the json that we cannot do on a lower layer */
 static int
 fixJSON(struct ln_pdag *dag,
@@ -1381,9 +1409,11 @@ fixJSON(struct ln_pdag *dag,
 			json_object_put(*value);
 			json_object_object_add_ex(json, prs->name, valDotDot,
 				JSON_C_OBJECT_ADD_KEY_IS_NEW|JSON_C_OBJECT_KEY_IS_CONSTANT);
+		} else if(dag->ctx->version == 3) {
+			add_json_nested_key_value_pair(json, (char *)prs->name, *value);
 		} else {
 			json_object_object_add_ex(json, prs->name, *value,
-				JSON_C_OBJECT_ADD_KEY_IS_NEW|JSON_C_OBJECT_KEY_IS_CONSTANT);
+                                      JSON_C_OBJECT_ADD_KEY_IS_NEW|JSON_C_OBJECT_KEY_IS_CONSTANT);
 		}
 	}
 	r = 0;
diff --git a/src/samp.c b/src/samp.c
index d5d42c3d..1d5c1c07 100644
--- a/src/samp.c
+++ b/src/samp.c
@@ -1062,6 +1062,8 @@ checkVersion(FILE *const fp)
 		return -1;
 	if(!strcmp(buf, "version=2\n")) {
 		return 2;
+	} else if(!strcmp(buf, "version=3\n")) {
+		return 3;
 	} else {
 		return 1;
 	}
@@ -1154,7 +1156,7 @@ ln_sampLoad(ln_ctx ctx, const char *file)
 	}
 
 	/* now we are in our native code */
-	++ctx->conf_ln_nbr; /* "version=2" is line 1! */
+	++ctx->conf_ln_nbr; /* "version=2" or "version=3" is line 1! */
 	while(!isEof) {
 		CHKR(ln_sampRead(ctx, repo, NULL, &isEof));
 	}
@@ -1178,7 +1180,7 @@ ln_sampLoadFromString(ln_ctx ctx, const char *string)
 		goto done;
 
 	ln_dbgprintf(ctx, "loading v2 rulebase from string '%s'", string);
-	ctx->version = 2;
+	ctx->version = 3;
 	while(!isEof) {
 		CHKR(ln_sampRead(ctx, NULL, &string, &isEof));
 	}
diff --git a/tests/field_v3_nested.sh b/tests/field_v3_nested.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..0dcafc1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/field_v3_nested.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# added 2023-09-25 by KGuillemot
+# This file is part of the liblognorm project, released under ASL 2.0
+. $srcdir/exec.sh
+no_solaris10
+
+test_def $0 "v3 name-value-list parser"
+
+add_rule 'version=3'
+add_rule 'rule=:<%syslog!priority:number%>%received!time:date-rfc3164% %host!name:word% %log!data:name-value-list%'
+
+execute '<15>Feb 10 08:30:07 hostname a=b c=d y=z'
+assert_output_json_eq '{ "log": { "data": { "a": "b", "c": "d", "y": "z" } }, "host": { "name": "hostname" }, "received": { "time": "Feb 10 08:30:07" }, "syslog": { "priority": "15" } }'
+
+cleanup_tmp_files
+