diff --git a/cowrie/core/honeypot.py b/cowrie/core/honeypot.py
index 6ac90ff6..456e99d8 100644
--- a/cowrie/core/honeypot.py
+++ b/cowrie/core/honeypot.py
@@ -141,7 +141,8 @@ class HoneyPotCommand(object):
         """
         log.msg('QUEUED INPUT: {}'.format(line))
         # FIXME: naive command parsing, see lineReceived below
-        line=line.decode()
+        if (isinstance(line, str)):
+            line = line.decode()
         self.protocol.cmdstack[0].cmdpending.append(shlex.split(line))
 
 
@@ -185,7 +186,8 @@ class HoneyPotShell(object):
         """
         """
         log.msg(eventid='cowrie.command.input', input=line, format='CMD: %(input)s')
-        line=line.decode()
+        if (isinstance(line, str)):
+            line = line.decode()
         self.lexer = shlex.shlex(instream=line, punctuation_chars=True)
         tokens = []
         while True: