diff --git a/config.py b/config.py
index ae8fbc6..8108040 100755
--- a/config.py
+++ b/config.py
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ def build_config(_config_file):
                         'SOFTWARE_ID': bytes(config.get(section, 'SOFTWARE_ID').ljust(40)[:40], 'utf-8'),
                         'PACKAGE_ID': bytes(config.get(section, 'PACKAGE_ID').ljust(40)[:40], 'utf-8'),
                         'GROUP_HANGTIME': config.getint(section, 'GROUP_HANGTIME'),
-                        'OPTIONS': config.get(section, 'OPTIONS'),
+                        'OPTIONS': bytes(config.get(section, 'OPTIONS'), 'utf-8'),
                         'USE_ACL': config.getboolean(section, 'USE_ACL'),
                         'SUB_ACL': config.get(section, 'SUB_ACL'),
                         'TG1_ACL': config.get(section, 'TGID_TS1_ACL'),