diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 153dfeb5..3e48ece9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Bug fixes:
 - Don't fail adding a feed which collides with another via redirection
 - Don't fail on very long text-search queries containing question marks
   when using PostgreSQL or MySQL
+- Specify HTTP authentication encoding as UTF-8
 
 Changes:
 - Include a user manual
diff --git a/lib/Misc/HTTP.php b/lib/Misc/HTTP.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..78a817b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/Misc/HTTP.php
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+<?php
+/** @license MIT
+ * Copyright 2017 J. King, Dustin Wilson et al.
+ * See LICENSE and AUTHORS files for details */
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+namespace JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc;
+
+use Psr\Http\Message\MessageInterface;
+
+class HTTP {
+    public static function matchType(MessageInterface $msg, string ...$type): bool {
+        $header = $msg->getHeaderLine("Content-Type") ?? "";
+        foreach ($type as $t) {
+            $pattern = "/^".preg_quote(trim($t), "/")."($|;|,)/i";
+            if (preg_match($pattern, $header)) {
+                return true;
+            }
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/lib/REST/Fever/API.php b/lib/REST/Fever/API.php
index 1401d63a..a83b3e1a 100644
--- a/lib/REST/Fever/API.php
+++ b/lib/REST/Fever/API.php
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ use JKingWeb\Arsse\Context\Context;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc\ValueInfo as V;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc\Date;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\Db\ExceptionInput;
+use JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc\HTTP;
 use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface;
 use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
 use Zend\Diactoros\Response\JsonResponse;
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ class API extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\AbstractHandler {
     const LEVEL = 3;
     const GENERIC_ICON_TYPE = "image/png;base64";
     const GENERIC_ICON_DATA = "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAYAAAAfFcSJAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAARnQU1BAACxjwv8YQUAAAAJcEhZcwAADsMAAA7DAcdvqGQAAAAZdEVYdFNvZnR3YXJlAHBhaW50Lm5ldCA0LjAuMjHxIGmVAAAADUlEQVQYV2NgYGBgAAAABQABijPjAAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==";
+    const ACCEPTED_TYPE = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
 
     // GET parameters for which we only check presence: these will be converted to booleans
     const PARAM_BOOL = ["groups", "feeds", "items", "favicons", "links", "unread_item_ids", "saved_item_ids"];
@@ -66,11 +68,11 @@ class API extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\AbstractHandler {
             case "OPTIONS":
                 return new EmptyResponse(204, [
                     'Allow' => "POST",
-                    'Accept' => "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
+                    'Accept' => self::ACCEPTED_TYPE,
                 ]);
             case "POST":
-                if (strlen($req->getHeaderLine("Content-Type")) && $req->getHeaderLine("Content-Type") !== "application/x-www-form-urlencoded") {
-                    return new EmptyResponse(415, ['Accept' => "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"]);
+                if (!HTTP::matchType($req, self::ACCEPTED_TYPE, "")) {
+                    return new EmptyResponse(415, ['Accept' => self::ACCEPTED_TYPE]);
                 }
                 $out = [
                     'api_version' => self::LEVEL,
diff --git a/lib/REST/NextCloudNews/V1_2.php b/lib/REST/NextCloudNews/V1_2.php
index f64d9cb2..29652d17 100644
--- a/lib/REST/NextCloudNews/V1_2.php
+++ b/lib/REST/NextCloudNews/V1_2.php
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ use JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc\ValueInfo;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\AbstractException;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\Db\ExceptionInput;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\Feed\Exception as FeedException;
+use JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc\HTTP;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\Exception404;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\Exception405;
 use Psr\Http\Message\ServerRequestInterface;
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ use Zend\Diactoros\Response\EmptyResponse;
 class V1_2 extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\AbstractHandler {
     const REALM = "NextCloud News API v1-2";
     const VERSION = "11.0.5";
+    const ACCEPTED_TYPE = "application/json";
 
     protected $dateFormat = "unix";
 
@@ -90,15 +92,10 @@ class V1_2 extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\AbstractHandler {
         }
         // normalize the input
         $data = (string) $req->getBody();
-        $type = "";
-        if ($req->hasHeader("Content-Type")) {
-            $type = $req->getHeader("Content-Type");
-            $type = array_pop($type);
-        }
         if ($data) {
             // if the entity body is not JSON according to content type, return "415 Unsupported Media Type"
-            if (!preg_match("<^application/json\b|^$>", $type)) {
-                return new EmptyResponse(415, ['Accept' => "application/json"]);
+            if (!HTTP::matchType($req, "", self::ACCEPTED_TYPE)) {
+                return new EmptyResponse(415, ['Accept' => self::ACCEPTED_TYPE]);
             }
             $data = @json_decode($data, true);
             if (json_last_error() !== \JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
@@ -269,7 +266,7 @@ class V1_2 extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\AbstractHandler {
             }
             return new EmptyResponse(204, [
                 'Allow'  => implode(",", $allowed),
-                'Accept' => "application/json",
+                'Accept' => self::ACCEPTED_TYPE,
             ]);
         } else {
             // if the path is not supported, return 404
diff --git a/lib/REST/TinyTinyRSS/API.php b/lib/REST/TinyTinyRSS/API.php
index 045710cf..56a24374 100644
--- a/lib/REST/TinyTinyRSS/API.php
+++ b/lib/REST/TinyTinyRSS/API.php
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ class API extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\AbstractHandler {
     const CAT_NOT_SPECIAL = -3;
     const CAT_ALL = -4;
     // valid input
+    const ACCEPTED_TYPES = ["application/json", "text/json"];
     const VALID_INPUT = [
         'op'                  => ValueInfo::T_STRING,                           // the function ("operation") to perform
         'sid'                 => ValueInfo::T_STRING,                           // session ID
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@ class API extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\REST\AbstractHandler {
             // respond to OPTIONS rquests; the response is a fib, as we technically accept any type or method
             return new EmptyResponse(204, [
                 'Allow'  => "POST",
-                'Accept' => "application/json, text/json",
+                'Accept' => implode(", ", self::ACCEPTED_TYPES),
             ]);
         }
         $data = (string) $req->getBody();
diff --git a/tests/cases/Misc/TestHTTP.php b/tests/cases/Misc/TestHTTP.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5d6f4656
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cases/Misc/TestHTTP.php
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+<?php
+/** @license MIT
+ * Copyright 2017 J. King, Dustin Wilson et al.
+ * See LICENSE and AUTHORS files for details */
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+namespace JKingWeb\Arsse\TestCase\Misc;
+
+use JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc\HTTP;
+use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
+
+/** @covers \JKingWeb\Arsse\Misc\HTTP */
+class TestHTTP extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\Test\AbstractTest {
+    /** @dataProvider provideMediaTypes */
+    public function testMatchMediaType(string $header, array $types, bool $exp) {
+        $msg = (new \Zend\Diactoros\Request)->withHeader("Content-Type", $header);
+        $this->assertSame($exp, HTTP::matchType($msg, ...$types));
+        $msg = (new \Zend\Diactoros\Response)->withHeader("Content-Type", $header);
+        $this->assertSame($exp, HTTP::matchType($msg, ...$types));
+    }
+
+    public function provideMediaTypes() {
+        return [
+            ["application/json",         ["application/json"],              true],
+            ["APPLICATION/JSON",         ["application/json"],              true],
+            ["text/JSON",                ["application/json", "text/json"], true],
+            ["text/json; charset=utf-8", ["application/json", "text/json"], true],
+            ["",                         ["application/json"],              false],
+            ["",                         ["application/json", ""],          true],
+        ];
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/phpunit.dist.xml b/tests/phpunit.dist.xml
index aeb1dbf3..62e3238e 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit.dist.xml
+++ b/tests/phpunit.dist.xml
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@
         <file>cases/Misc/TestDate.php</file>
         <file>cases/Misc/TestContext.php</file>
         <file>cases/Misc/TestURL.php</file>
+        <file>cases/Misc/TestHTTP.php</file>
     </testsuite>
     <testsuite name="User management">
         <file>cases/User/TestInternal.php</file>