diff --git a/src/cyrsasl_digest.erl b/src/cyrsasl_digest.erl
index 2a7ce2a69..2416cd06f 100644
--- a/src/cyrsasl_digest.erl
+++ b/src/cyrsasl_digest.erl
@@ -191,14 +191,20 @@ response(KeyVals, User, Passwd, Nonce, AuthzId, A2Prefix) ->
     DigestURI = xml:get_attr_s("digest-uri", KeyVals),
     NC = xml:get_attr_s("nc", KeyVals),
     QOP = xml:get_attr_s("qop", KeyVals),
+
+    %% handle non-fully latin-1 strings as specified 
+    %% on RFC 2831 Section 2.1.2.1 (EJAB-476)
+    SUser = sanitize(User),
+    SPasswd = sanitize(Passwd),
+    SRealm = sanitize(Realm),
     A1 = case AuthzId of
 	     "" ->
 		 binary_to_list(
-		   crypto:md5(User ++ ":" ++ Realm ++ ":" ++ Passwd)) ++
+		   crypto:md5(SUser ++ ":" ++ SRealm ++ ":" ++ SPasswd)) ++
 		     ":" ++ Nonce ++ ":" ++ CNonce;
 	     _ ->
 		 binary_to_list(
-		   crypto:md5(User ++ ":" ++ Realm ++ ":" ++ Passwd)) ++
+		   crypto:md5(SUser ++ ":" ++ SRealm ++ ":" ++ SPasswd)) ++
 		     ":" ++ Nonce ++ ":" ++ CNonce ++ ":" ++ AuthzId
 	 end,
     A2 = case QOP of
@@ -214,4 +220,79 @@ response(KeyVals, User, Passwd, Nonce, AuthzId, A2Prefix) ->
     hex(binary_to_list(crypto:md5(T))).
 
 
+sanitize(V) ->
+    L = from_utf8(V),
+    case lists:all(fun is_latin1/1, L) of
+    	true -> L;
+    	false -> V
+    end.
+
+%%%% copied from xmerl_ucs:from_utf8/1 and xmerl_ucs:is_latin1/1 , to not
+%%%% require xmerl as a dependency only for this.
+
+from_utf8(Bin) when is_binary(Bin) -> from_utf8(binary_to_list(Bin));
+from_utf8(List) ->
+    case expand_utf8(List) of
+    {Result,0} -> Result;
+    {_Res,_NumBadChar} ->
+        exit({ucs,{bad_utf8_character_code}})
+    end.
+
+
+
+%% expand_utf8([Byte]) -> {[UnicodeChar],NumberOfBadBytes}
+%%  Expand UTF8 byte sequences to ISO 10646/Unicode
+%%  charactes. Any illegal bytes are removed and the number of
+%%  bad bytes are returned.
+%%
+%%  Reference:
+%%     RFC 3629: "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646".
+
+expand_utf8(Str) ->
+    expand_utf8_1(Str, [], 0).
+
+expand_utf8_1([C|Cs], Acc, Bad) when C < 16#80 ->
+    %% Plain Ascii character.
+    expand_utf8_1(Cs, [C|Acc], Bad);
+expand_utf8_1([C1,C2|Cs], Acc, Bad) when C1 band 16#E0 =:= 16#C0,
+                     C2 band 16#C0 =:= 16#80 ->
+    case ((C1 band 16#1F) bsl 6) bor (C2 band 16#3F) of
+    C when 16#80 =< C ->
+        expand_utf8_1(Cs, [C|Acc], Bad);
+    _ ->
+        %% Bad range.
+        expand_utf8_1(Cs, Acc, Bad+1)
+    end;
+expand_utf8_1([C1,C2,C3|Cs], Acc, Bad) when C1 band 16#F0 =:= 16#E0,
+                        C2 band 16#C0 =:= 16#80,
+                        C3 band 16#C0 =:= 16#80 ->
+    case ((((C1 band 16#0F) bsl 6) bor (C2 band 16#3F)) bsl 6) bor
+    (C3 band 16#3F) of
+    C when 16#800 =< C ->
+        expand_utf8_1(Cs, [C|Acc], Bad);
+    _ ->
+        %% Bad range.
+        expand_utf8_1(Cs, Acc, Bad+1)
+    end;
+expand_utf8_1([C1,C2,C3,C4|Cs], Acc, Bad) when C1 band 16#F8 =:= 16#F0,
+                           C2 band 16#C0 =:= 16#80,
+                           C3 band 16#C0 =:= 16#80,
+                           C4 band 16#C0 =:= 16#80 ->
+    case ((((((C1 band 16#0F) bsl 6) bor (C2 band 16#3F)) bsl 6) bor
+    (C3 band 16#3F)) bsl 6) bor (C4 band 16#3F) of
+    C when 16#10000 =< C ->
+        expand_utf8_1(Cs, [C|Acc], Bad);
+    _ ->
+        %% Bad range.
+        expand_utf8_1(Cs, Acc, Bad+1)
+    end;
+expand_utf8_1([_|Cs], Acc, Bad) ->
+    %% Ignore bad character.
+    expand_utf8_1(Cs, Acc, Bad+1);
+expand_utf8_1([], Acc, Bad) -> {lists:reverse(Acc),Bad}.
+
+
+%%% Test for legitimate Latin-1 code
+is_latin1(Ch) when is_integer(Ch), Ch >= 0, Ch =< 255 -> true;
+is_latin1(_) -> false.