Both goals came from the penalty spot and the visitors had their veteran skipper Dion Dublin sent off in injury time.
Despite the nature of their victory, Charlton were well worth the three points as they outplayed their East Anglian opponents for long periods of the game.
And it looked as though all their possession would count for nothing as Norwich defended stubbornly with the home side twice hitting the woodwork before the late drama sent the Charlton supporters home happy.
The breakthrough came on 86 minutes when substitute Izale McLeod was brought down in the area by Gary Doherty and Charlton skipper Andy Reid stepped up to fire the ball into the net.
Two minutes later McLeod was again upended in the penalty area this time by Julien Brellier and Reid confidently slotted his second spot-kick wide of Norwich keeper David Marshall.
Then in injury time Dublin was shown a red card for a professional foul to spoil what for him had been an otherwise excellent performance at the heart of the defence.
Chris Iwelumo saw his tenth minute header rebound off the underside of the bar and somehow Charlton managed to put the rebound wide.
It took Norwich 39 minutes to get anywhere near the Charlton goal, but it needed an excellent save from goalkeeper Nicky Weaver to deny Darren Huckerby.
Their only other worthwhile effort was a Chris Brown header which went over the bar.
This was a satisfying performance for Charlton boss Alan Pardew against the team managed by Peter Grant, who was his assistant when the two were together at West Ham.