diff --git a/lib/passport-saml/saml.js b/lib/passport-saml/saml.js
index 09e5ec99..338eaec8 100644
--- a/lib/passport-saml/saml.js
+++ b/lib/passport-saml/saml.js
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ SAML.prototype.validateSignature = function (fullXml, currentNode, cert) {
 
 SAML.prototype.validatePostResponse = function (container, callback) {
   var self = this;
-  var xml = new Buffer(container.SAMLResponse, 'base64').toString('ascii');
+  var xml = new Buffer(container.SAMLResponse, 'base64').toString('utf8');
   var doc = new xmldom.DOMParser().parseFromString(xml);
 
   var inResponseTo = xpath(doc, "/*[local-name()='Response']/@InResponseTo");
@@ -628,7 +628,7 @@ SAML.prototype.checkTimestampsValidityError = function(nowMs, notBefore, notOnOr
 
 SAML.prototype.validatePostRequest = function (container, callback) {
   var self = this;
-  var xml = new Buffer(container.SAMLRequest, 'base64').toString('ascii');
+  var xml = new Buffer(container.SAMLRequest, 'base64').toString('utf8');
   var parserConfig = {
     explicitRoot: true,
     tagNameProcessors: [xml2js.processors.stripPrefix]
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index a90d475a..c676c4cc 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "passport-saml",
-  "version": "0.5.2",
+  "version": "0.5.3",
   "licenses": [
     {
       "type": "MIT",
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
   "main": "./lib/passport-saml",
   "dependencies": {
     "passport": "0.2.x",
-    "q" : "1.0.x", 
+    "q": "1.0.x",
     "xml2js": "0.4.x",
     "xml-crypto": "0.1.x",
     "xmldom": "0.1.x",