diff --git a/Sparkle/SUBasicUpdateDriver.m b/Sparkle/SUBasicUpdateDriver.m
index 9a1dc66b..2409740c 100644
--- a/Sparkle/SUBasicUpdateDriver.m
+++ b/Sparkle/SUBasicUpdateDriver.m
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ - (void)checkForUpdatesAtURL:(NSURL *)URL host:(SUHost *)aHost
 	[appcast setDelegate:self];
 	NSString *userAgent = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%@/%@ Sparkle/%@", [aHost name], [aHost displayVersion], ([SPARKLE_BUNDLE objectForInfoDictionaryKey:@"CFBundleVersion"] ?: nil)];
 	NSData * cleanedAgent = [userAgent dataUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding allowLossyConversion:YES];
-	userAgent = [NSString stringWithCString:[cleanedAgent bytes] length:[cleanedAgent length]];
+	userAgent = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:cleanedAgent encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
 	[appcast setUserAgentString:userAgent];
 	[appcast fetchAppcastFromURL:URL];
 }
diff --git a/Sparkle/SUHost.m b/Sparkle/SUHost.m
index 3f8f91db..90334078 100644
--- a/Sparkle/SUHost.m
+++ b/Sparkle/SUHost.m
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ - (NSString *)publicDSAKey
 	// More likely, we've got a reference to a Resources file by filename:
 	NSString *keyFilename = [self objectForInfoDictionaryKey:SUPublicDSAKeyFileKey];
 	if (!keyFilename) { return nil; }
-	return [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:[bundle pathForResource:keyFilename ofType:nil]];
+	return [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:[bundle pathForResource:keyFilename ofType:nil] encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding error:NULL];
 }
 
 - (NSArray *)systemProfile