diff --git a/lib/core/convert.py b/lib/core/convert.py
index 4704808d9..1ac4172bb 100644
--- a/lib/core/convert.py
+++ b/lib/core/convert.py
@@ -100,3 +100,9 @@ def urlencode(string, safe=":/?%&=", convall=False):
         result = urllib.quote(string, safe)
 
     return result
+
+def utf8encode(string):
+    return string.encode("utf-8")
+
+def utf8decode(string):
+    return string.decode("utf-8")
diff --git a/lib/request/direct.py b/lib/request/direct.py
index ca8ef944f..2c014f229 100644
--- a/lib/request/direct.py
+++ b/lib/request/direct.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ from lib.core.agent import agent
 from lib.core.common import dataToSessionFile
 from lib.core.convert import base64pickle
 from lib.core.convert import base64unpickle
+from lib.core.convert import utf8decode
 from lib.core.data import conf
 from lib.core.data import kb
 from lib.core.data import logger
@@ -35,6 +36,7 @@ from lib.utils.timeout import timeout
 def direct(query, content=True):
     output = None
     select = False
+    query = utf8decode(query)
     query = agent.payloadDirect(query)
 
     if kb.dbms == "Oracle" and query.startswith("SELECT ") and " FROM " not in query: