diff --git a/cuckoo/custom.kv.conf b/cuckoo/custom.kv.conf
index 78f317c..af91a5c 100644
--- a/cuckoo/custom.kv.conf
+++ b/cuckoo/custom.kv.conf
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ cuckoo.cuckoo.process_results = no
 cuckoo.cuckoo.freespace = 256
 cuckoo.resultserver.ip = 192.168.56.5
 cuckoo.processing.resolve_dns = no
-cuckoo.database.connection = mysql://cuckoo:{{ cuckoo_db_password }}@{{ mariadb_server }}/cuckoo
+# charset=utf8 works around latin1 encoding default in mysqlclient with python2
+cuckoo.database.connection = mysql://cuckoo:{{ cuckoo_db_password }}@{{ mariadb_server }}/cuckoo?charset=utf8
 cuckoo.cuckoo.api_token = {{ cuckoo_api_token }}
 
 reporting.mongodb.enabled = yes