diff --git a/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/00-policy.yaml b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/00-policy.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..404ce85387df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/00-policy.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+apiVersion: kuttl.dev/v1beta1
+kind: TestStep
+apply:
+  - policy.yaml
+assert:
+  - policy-assert.yaml
diff --git a/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/01-deployment.yaml b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/01-deployment.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..525d7b544ccd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/01-deployment.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+apiVersion: kuttl.dev/v1beta1
+kind: TestStep
+apply:
+  - resources.yaml
+assert:
+  - resources-assert.yaml
diff --git a/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/README.md b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3c948b961598
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+## Description
+
+This test checks that document references with special characters in their names are supported.
+
+## Expected Behavior
+
+JMESPath references generated when documents are traversed are escaped properly according to the JMESPath standard.
+
+## Reference Issue(s)
+
+3578
+3616
diff --git a/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/policy-assert.yaml b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/policy-assert.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..85dd54eef75a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/policy-assert.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+apiVersion: kyverno.io/v1
+kind: ClusterPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: jmespath-with-special-chars-demo
+status:
+  conditions:
+  - reason: Succeeded
+    status: "True"
+    type: Ready
diff --git a/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/policy.yaml b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/policy.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ce91a05aeb71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/policy.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+apiVersion: kyverno.io/v1
+kind: ClusterPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: jmespath-with-special-chars-demo
+spec:
+  rules:
+    - name: format-deploy-zone
+      match:
+        any:
+          - resources:
+              kinds:
+                - Pod
+      mutate:
+        patchStrategicMerge:
+          metadata:
+            labels:
+              deploy-zone: "{{ to_upper('{{@}}') }}"
+    - name: retention-adjust
+      match:
+        any:
+          - resources:
+              kinds:
+                - Pod
+      mutate:
+        patchStrategicMerge:
+          metadata:
+            labels:
+              corp.com/retention: "{{ regex_replace_all('([0-9])([0-9])', '{{ @ }}', '${1}0') }}"
diff --git a/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/resources-assert.yaml b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/resources-assert.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0505829a4015
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/resources-assert.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Pod
+metadata:
+  name: busybox
+  labels:
+    deploy-zone: FRANKFURT
+    corp.com/retention: days_30
diff --git a/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/resources.yaml b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/resources.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..63f79ab966f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/conformance/kuttl/mutate/clusterpolicy/cornercases/jmespath-with-special-chars/resources.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Pod
+metadata:
+  name: busybox
+  labels:
+    deploy-zone: frankfurt
+    corp.com/retention: days_37
+spec:
+  containers:
+    - name: busybox
+      image: busybox:stable
+      command: ["sleep", "600"]