diff --git a/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py b/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py
index 8298255f8..9cc26479c 100755
--- a/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py
+++ b/extra/safe2bin/safe2bin.py
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ HEX_ENCODED_CHAR_REGEX = r"(?P<result>\\x[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})"
 # Raw chars that will be safe encoded to their slash (\) representations (e.g. newline to \n)
 SAFE_ENCODE_SLASH_REPLACEMENTS = "\t\n\r\x0b\x0c"
 
+# Characters that don't need to be safe encoded
+SAFE_CHARS = "".join(filter(lambda x: x not in SAFE_ENCODE_SLASH_REPLACEMENTS, string.printable.replace('\\', '')))
+
 # String used for temporary marking of slash characters
 SLASH_MARKER = "__SLASH__"
 
@@ -40,15 +43,15 @@ def safecharencode(value):
     retVal = value
 
     if isinstance(value, basestring):
-        retVal = retVal.replace('\\', SLASH_MARKER)
+        if any(_ not in SAFE_CHARS for _ in value):
+            retVal = retVal.replace('\\', SLASH_MARKER)
 
-        for char in SAFE_ENCODE_SLASH_REPLACEMENTS:
-            retVal = retVal.replace(char, repr(char).strip('\''))
+            for char in SAFE_ENCODE_SLASH_REPLACEMENTS:
+                retVal = retVal.replace(char, repr(char).strip('\''))
 
-        retVal = retVal.replace(SLASH_MARKER, '\\\\')
-
-        retVal = reduce(lambda x, y: x + (y if (y in string.printable or ord(y) > 255) else '\\x%02x' % ord(y)), retVal, unicode())
+            retVal = retVal.replace(SLASH_MARKER, '\\\\')
 
+            retVal = reduce(lambda x, y: x + (y if (y in string.printable or ord(y) > 255) else '\\x%02x' % ord(y)), retVal, unicode())
     elif isinstance(value, list):
         for i in xrange(len(value)):
             retVal[i] = safecharencode(value[i])
diff --git a/lib/core/common.py b/lib/core/common.py
index 5e01444cd..036138d64 100644
--- a/lib/core/common.py
+++ b/lib/core/common.py
@@ -1332,12 +1332,12 @@ def parseUnionPage(output, unique=True):
     if output is None:
         return None
 
-    data = BigArray()
-
     if output.startswith(kb.chars.start) and output.endswith(kb.chars.stop):
+        data = BigArray()
+        _ = []
+
         regExpr = '%s(.*?)%s' % (kb.chars.start, kb.chars.stop)
         output = re.finditer(regExpr, output, re.DOTALL | re.IGNORECASE)
-        _ = []
 
         for entry in output:
             entry = entry.group(1)