diff --git a/src/core/operations/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs b/src/core/operations/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs
index ae96fd0a29..1f76fc2146 100644
--- a/src/core/operations/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs
+++ b/src/core/operations/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ class TextEncodingBruteForce extends Operation {
             "</ul>"
         ].join("\n");
         this.infoURL = "https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encoding";
-        this.inputType = "string";
+        this.inputType = "byteArray";
         this.outputType = "json";
         this.presentType = "html";
         this.args = [
@@ -45,21 +45,22 @@ class TextEncodingBruteForce extends Operation {
     }
 
     /**
-     * @param {string} input
+     * @param {byteArray} input
      * @param {Object[]} args
      * @returns {json}
      */
     run(input, args) {
         const output = {},
             charsets = Object.keys(CHR_ENC_CODE_PAGES),
-            mode = args[0];
+            mode = args[0],
+            stringInput = Utils.arrayBufferToStr(input);
 
         charsets.forEach(charset => {
             try {
                 if (mode === "Decode") {
                     output[charset] = cptable.utils.decode(CHR_ENC_CODE_PAGES[charset], input);
                 } else {
-                    output[charset] = Utils.arrayBufferToStr(cptable.utils.encode(CHR_ENC_CODE_PAGES[charset], input));
+                    output[charset] = Utils.arrayBufferToStr(cptable.utils.encode(CHR_ENC_CODE_PAGES[charset], stringInput));
                 }
             } catch (err) {
                 output[charset] = "Could not decode.";
diff --git a/tests/operations/tests/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs b/tests/operations/tests/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs
index dfc5073b47..32b56e299c 100644
--- a/tests/operations/tests/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs
+++ b/tests/operations/tests/TextEncodingBruteForce.mjs
@@ -30,6 +30,21 @@ TestRegister.addTests([
                 args: ["Decode"],
             },
         ],
+    },
+    {
+        name: "Text Encoding Brute Force - Decode preserves raw UTF-8 bytes",
+        input: "63 61 66 c3 a9",
+        expectedMatch: /UTF-8 Unicode \(65001\).{1,10}café/,
+        recipeConfig: [
+            {
+                op: "From Hex",
+                args: ["Auto"],
+            },
+            {
+                op: "Text Encoding Brute Force",
+                args: ["Decode"],
+            },
+        ],
     }
 ]);