diff --git a/lib/core/common.py b/lib/core/common.py
index 96eb25297..45aeb1997 100644
--- a/lib/core/common.py
+++ b/lib/core/common.py
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ from lib.core.settings import INVALID_UNICODE_CHAR_FORMAT
 from lib.core.settings import ISSUES_PAGE
 from lib.core.settings import IS_WIN
 from lib.core.settings import LARGE_OUTPUT_THRESHOLD
+from lib.core.settings import MIN_ENCODED_LEN_CHECK
 from lib.core.settings import MIN_TIME_RESPONSES
 from lib.core.settings import ML
 from lib.core.settings import NULL
@@ -570,7 +571,7 @@ def paramToDict(place, parameters=None):
                 for encoding in ("hex", "base64"):
                     try:
                         decoded = value.decode(encoding)
-                        if all(_ in string.printable for _ in decoded):
+                        if len(decoded) > MIN_ENCODED_LEN_CHECK and all(_ in string.printable for _ in decoded):
                             warnMsg = "provided parameter '%s' " % parameter
                             warnMsg += "seems to be '%s' encoded" % encoding
                             logger.warn(warnMsg)
@@ -768,13 +769,6 @@ def dataToOutFile(filename, data):
 
     return retVal
 
-def strToHex(value):
-    """
-    Converts string value to it's hexadecimal representation
-    """
-
-    return (value if not isinstance(value, unicode) else value.encode(UNICODE_ENCODING)).encode("hex").upper()
-
 def readInput(message, default=None, checkBatch=True):
     """
     Reads input from terminal
@@ -1313,20 +1307,6 @@ def getCharset(charsetType=None):
 
     return asciiTbl
 
-def searchEnvPath(filename):
-    retVal = None
-    path = os.environ.get("PATH", "")
-    paths = path.split(";") if IS_WIN else path.split(":")
-
-    for _ in paths:
-        _ = _.replace(";", "")
-        retVal = os.path.exists(os.path.normpath(os.path.join(_, filename)))
-
-        if retVal:
-            break
-
-    return retVal
-
 def directoryPath(filepath):
     """
     Returns directory path for a given filepath
@@ -1434,13 +1414,6 @@ def showStaticWords(firstPage, secondPage):
 
     logger.info(infoMsg)
 
-def isWindowsPath(filepath):
-    """
-    Returns True if given filepath is in Windows format
-    """
-
-    return re.search("\A[\w]\:\\\\", filepath) is not None
-
 def isWindowsDriveLetterPath(filepath):
     """
     Returns True if given filepath starts with a Windows drive letter
@@ -1470,18 +1443,6 @@ def ntToPosixSlashes(filepath):
 
     return filepath.replace('\\', '/')
 
-def isBase64EncodedString(subject):
-    """
-    Checks if the provided string is Base64 encoded
-
-    >>> isBase64EncodedString('dGVzdA==')
-    True
-    >>> isBase64EncodedString('123456')
-    False
-    """
-
-    return re.match(r"\A(?:[A-Za-z0-9+/]{4})*(?:[A-Za-z0-9+/]{2}==|[A-Za-z0-9+/]{3}=)?\Z", subject) is not None
-
 def isHexEncodedString(subject):
     """
     Checks if the provided string is hex encoded
@@ -2485,20 +2446,6 @@ def showHttpErrorCodes():
           for code, count in kb.httpErrorCodes.items())
         logger.warn(warnMsg)
 
-def getComparePageRatio(firstPage, secondPage, filtered=False):
-    """
-    Returns comparison ratio between two given pages
-    """
-
-    if filtered:
-        (firstPage, secondPage) = map(getFilteredPageContent, (firstPage, secondPage))
-
-    seqMatcher = getCurrentThreadData().seqMatcher
-    seqMatcher.set_seq1(firstPage)
-    seqMatcher.set_seq2(secondPage)
-
-    return seqMatcher.quick_ratio()
-
 def openFile(filename, mode='r'):
     """
     Returns file handle of a given filename
@@ -2752,16 +2699,6 @@ def unsafeSQLIdentificatorNaming(name):
 
     return retVal
 
-def isBinaryData(value):
-    """
-    Tests given value for binary content
-    """
-
-    retVal = False
-    if isinstance(value, basestring):
-        retVal = reduce(lambda x, y: x or not (y in string.printable or ord(y) > 255), value, False)
-    return retVal
-
 def isNoneValue(value):
     """
     Returns whether the value is unusable (None or '')
diff --git a/lib/core/convert.py b/lib/core/convert.py
index 792b6ea31..48c904e9e 100644
--- a/lib/core/convert.py
+++ b/lib/core/convert.py
@@ -47,25 +47,6 @@ def hexdecode(value):
 def hexencode(value):
     return utf8encode(value).encode("hex")
 
-def md5hash(value):
-    if "hashlib" in sys.modules:
-        return hashlib.md5(value).hexdigest()
-    else:
-        return md5.new(value).hexdigest()
-
-def orddecode(value):
-    packedString = struct.pack("!" + "I" * len(value), *value)
-    return "".join(chr(char) for char in struct.unpack("!" + "I" * (len(packedString) / 4), packedString))
-
-def ordencode(value):
-    return tuple(ord(char) for char in value)
-
-def sha1hash(value):
-    if "hashlib" in sys.modules:
-        return hashlib.sha1(value).hexdigest()
-    else:
-        return sha.new(value).hexdigest()
-
 def unicodeencode(value, encoding=None):
     """
     Return 8-bit string representation of the supplied unicode value:
diff --git a/lib/core/option.py b/lib/core/option.py
index 25e40d2fa..f71ea9b6b 100644
--- a/lib/core/option.py
+++ b/lib/core/option.py
@@ -131,7 +131,6 @@ from lib.parse.payloads import loadPayloads
 from lib.request.basic import checkCharEncoding
 from lib.request.connect import Connect as Request
 from lib.request.dns import DNSServer
-from lib.request.proxy import ProxyHTTPSHandler
 from lib.request.basicauthhandler import SmartHTTPBasicAuthHandler
 from lib.request.certhandler import HTTPSCertAuthHandler
 from lib.request.httpshandler import HTTPSHandler
@@ -970,17 +969,7 @@ def _setHTTPProxy():
             proxyString = ""
 
         proxyString += "%s:%d" % (hostname, port)
-
-        # Workaround for http://bugs.python.org/issue1424152 (urllib/urllib2:
-        # HTTPS over (Squid) Proxy fails) as long as HTTP over SSL requests
-        # can't be tunneled over an HTTP proxy natively by Python (<= 2.5)
-        # urllib2 standard library
-        if PYVERSION >= "2.6":
-            proxyHandler = urllib2.ProxyHandler({"http": proxyString, "https": proxyString})
-        elif conf.scheme == "https":
-            proxyHandler = ProxyHTTPSHandler(proxyString)
-        else:
-            proxyHandler = urllib2.ProxyHandler({"http": proxyString})
+        proxyHandler = urllib2.ProxyHandler({"http": proxyString, "https": proxyString})
 
 def _setSafeUrl():
     """
diff --git a/lib/core/settings.py b/lib/core/settings.py
index e6c075e6e..a5a8f5d4a 100644
--- a/lib/core/settings.py
+++ b/lib/core/settings.py
@@ -506,6 +506,9 @@ MIN_BINARY_DISK_DUMP_SIZE = 100
 # Regular expression used for extracting form tags
 FORM_SEARCH_REGEX = r"(?si)<form(?!.+<form).+?</form>"
 
+# Minimum field entry length needed for encoded content (hex, base64,...) check
+MIN_ENCODED_LEN_CHECK = 5
+
 # CSS style used in HTML dump format
 HTML_DUMP_CSS_STYLE = """<style>
 table{
diff --git a/lib/request/proxy.py b/lib/request/proxy.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 296fb740a..000000000
--- a/lib/request/proxy.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,106 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-
-"""
-Copyright (c) 2006-2012 sqlmap developers (http://sqlmap.org/)
-See the file 'doc/COPYING' for copying permission
-"""
-
-import httplib
-import socket
-import ssl
-import urllib
-import urllib2
-
-
-class ProxyHTTPConnection(httplib.HTTPConnection):
-    _ports = {"http": 80, "https": 443}
-
-    def request(self, method, url, body=None, headers={}):
-        # Request is called before connect, so can interpret url and get
-        # real host/port to be used to make CONNECT request to proxy
-        proto, rest = urllib.splittype(url)
-
-        if proto is None:
-            raise ValueError("unknown URL type: %s" % url)
-
-        # Get host
-        host, rest = urllib.splithost(rest)
-
-        # Try to get port
-        host, port = urllib.splitport(host)
-
-        # If port is not defined try to get from proto
-        if port is None:
-            try:
-                port = self._ports[proto]
-            except KeyError:
-                raise ValueError("unknown protocol for: %s" % url)
-
-        self._real_host = host
-        self._real_port = int(port)
-
-        httplib.HTTPConnection.request(self, method, rest, body, headers)
-
-    def connect(self):
-        httplib.HTTPConnection.connect(self)
-
-        # Send proxy CONNECT request
-        self.send("CONNECT %s:%d HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n" % (self._real_host, self._real_port))
-
-        # Expect a HTTP/1.0 200 Connection established
-        response = self.response_class(self.sock, strict=self.strict, method=self._method)
-        (version, code, message) = response._read_status()
-
-        # Probably here we can handle auth requests...
-        if code != 200:
-            # Proxy returned and error, abort connection, and raise exception
-            self.close()
-
-            raise socket.error, "Proxy connection failed: %d %s" % (code, message.strip())
-
-        # Eat up header block from proxy
-        while True:
-            # Should not use directly fp probably
-            line = response.fp.readline()
-
-            if line == "\r\n":
-                break
-
-class ProxyHTTPSConnection(ProxyHTTPConnection):
-    default_port = 443
-
-    def __init__(self, host, port=None, key_file=None, cert_file=None, strict=None, timeout=None):
-        ProxyHTTPConnection.__init__(self, host, port)
-        self.key_file = key_file
-        self.cert_file = cert_file
-
-    def connect(self):
-        ProxyHTTPConnection.connect(self)
-
-        # Make the sock ssl-aware
-        sslobj = ssl.wrap_socket(self.sock, self.key_file, self.cert_file)
-        self.sock = sslobj
-
-class ProxyHTTPHandler(urllib2.HTTPHandler):
-    def __init__(self, proxy=None, debuglevel=0):
-        self.proxy = proxy
-
-        urllib2.HTTPHandler.__init__(self, debuglevel)
-
-    def do_open(self, http_class, req):
-        if self.proxy is not None:
-            req.set_proxy(self.proxy, "http")
-
-        return urllib2.HTTPHandler.do_open(self, ProxyHTTPConnection, req)
-
-class ProxyHTTPSHandler(urllib2.HTTPSHandler):
-    def __init__(self, proxy=None, debuglevel=0):
-        self.proxy = proxy
-
-        urllib2.HTTPSHandler.__init__(self, debuglevel)
-
-    def do_open(self, http_class, req):
-        if self.proxy is not None:
-            req.set_proxy(self.proxy, "https")
-
-        return urllib2.HTTPSHandler.do_open(self, ProxyHTTPSConnection, req)
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/access/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/access/connector.py
index e7334edeb..b0aa371e9 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/access/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/access/connector.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
         except (pyodbc.Error, pyodbc.OperationalError), msg:
             raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg[1])
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/db2/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/db2/connector.py
index d80e1d026..507edaab4 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/db2/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/db2/connector.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
             raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg)
 
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/firebird/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/firebird/connector.py
index c903d4990..8b9600c90 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/firebird/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/firebird/connector.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
                 user=self.user.encode(UNICODE_ENCODING), password=self.password.encode(UNICODE_ENCODING), charset="UTF8")  # Reference: http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread248499.html
         except kinterbasdb.OperationalError, msg:
             raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg[1])
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/mssqlserver/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/mssqlserver/connector.py
index 203aa7053..d0e6738ea 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/mssqlserver/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/mssqlserver/connector.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
         except pymssql.OperationalError, msg:
             raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg)
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py
index 7eb81d734..83ef8f402 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/mysql/connector.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
         except (pymysql.OperationalError, pymysql.InternalError), msg:
             raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg[1])
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/oracle/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/oracle/connector.py
index 5c4cd678f..595460383 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/oracle/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/oracle/connector.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
             except (cx_Oracle.OperationalError, cx_Oracle.DatabaseError), msg:
                 raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg)
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/postgresql/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/postgresql/connector.py
index b53e232bf..8b0d6d585 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/postgresql/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/postgresql/connector.py
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
 
         self.connector.set_client_encoding('UNICODE')
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/sqlite/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/sqlite/connector.py
index 55584dbfd..858ac4bfd 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/sqlite/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/sqlite/connector.py
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
             except (self.__sqlite.DatabaseError, self.__sqlite.OperationalError), msg:
                 raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg[0])
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/dbms/sybase/connector.py b/plugins/dbms/sybase/connector.py
index 203aa7053..d0e6738ea 100644
--- a/plugins/dbms/sybase/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/dbms/sybase/connector.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class Connector(GenericConnector):
         except pymssql.OperationalError, msg:
             raise SqlmapConnectionException(msg)
 
-        self.setCursor()
+        self.initCursor()
         self.connected()
 
     def fetchall(self):
diff --git a/plugins/generic/connector.py b/plugins/generic/connector.py
index 92f57ee61..7f72a4a61 100644
--- a/plugins/generic/connector.py
+++ b/plugins/generic/connector.py
@@ -41,12 +41,9 @@ class Connector:
         self.connector = None
         self.cursor = None
 
-    def setCursor(self):
+    def initCursor(self):
         self.cursor = self.connector.cursor()
 
-    def getCursor(self):
-        return self.cursor
-
     def close(self):
         try:
             self.cursor.close()
diff --git a/plugins/generic/users.py b/plugins/generic/users.py
index d849e0e99..a229b4baf 100644
--- a/plugins/generic/users.py
+++ b/plugins/generic/users.py
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ from lib.core.common import isTechniqueAvailable
 from lib.core.common import parsePasswordHash
 from lib.core.common import randomStr
 from lib.core.common import readInput
-from lib.core.common import strToHex
 from lib.core.common import unArrayizeValue
+from lib.core.convert import hexencode
 from lib.core.data import conf
 from lib.core.data import kb
 from lib.core.data import logger
@@ -187,7 +187,6 @@ class Users:
 
                 if retVal:
                     for user, password in filterPairValues(zip(retVal[0]["%s.name" % randStr], retVal[0]["%s.password" % randStr])):
-                        # password = "0x%s" % strToHex(password)
                         if user not in kb.data.cachedUsersPasswords:
                             kb.data.cachedUsersPasswords[user] = [password]
                         else:
@@ -229,7 +228,7 @@ class Users:
 
                 if retVal:
                     for user, password in filterPairValues(zip(retVal[0]["%s.name" % randStr], retVal[0]["%s.password" % randStr])):
-                        password = "0x%s" % strToHex(password)
+                        password = "0x%s" % hexencode(password).upper()
 
                         if user not in kb.data.cachedUsersPasswords:
                             kb.data.cachedUsersPasswords[user] = [password]