1 files changed, 2 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/synapse/http/site.py b/synapse/http/site.py
index f5a8f78406..ad2a98468e 100644
--- a/synapse/http/site.py
+++ b/synapse/http/site.py
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ class SynapseRequest(Request):
         # need to decode as it could be raw utf-8 bytes
         # from a IDN servname in an auth header
         authenticated_entity = self.authenticated_entity
-        if authenticated_entity is not None:
+        if authenticated_entity is not None and isinstance(authenticated_entity, bytes):
             authenticated_entity = authenticated_entity.decode("utf-8", "replace")
 
         # ...or could be raw utf-8 bytes in the User-Agent header.
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ class SynapseSite(Site):
         proxied = config.get("x_forwarded", False)
         self.requestFactory = SynapseRequestFactory(self, proxied)
         self.access_logger = logging.getLogger(logger_name)
-        self.server_version_string = server_version_string
+        self.server_version_string = server_version_string.encode('ascii')
 
     def log(self, request):
         pass