diff --git a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/auth/DigestAuthenticationProvider.java b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/auth/DigestAuthenticationProvider.java
index 1a13d5a1a8a..3f49aa926bf 100644
--- a/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/auth/DigestAuthenticationProvider.java
+++ b/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/auth/DigestAuthenticationProvider.java
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException {
 
     private List<Id> handleAuthentication(final byte[] authData) {
         final List<Id> ids = new ArrayList<>();
-        final String id = new String(authData);
+        final String id = new String(authData, UTF_8);
         try {
             final String digest = generateDigest(id);
             if (digest.equals(superDigest)) {