diff --git a/xmlsave.c b/xmlsave.c
index 774404b884ad8596cf6ee9142ed5a93a1cbf7e7d..4a8e3f3903274558390c2e9981917020b77d6d81 100644
--- a/xmlsave.c
+++ b/xmlsave.c
@@ -2097,8 +2097,8 @@ xmlBufAttrSerializeTxtContent(xmlBufPtr buf, xmlDocPtr doc,
             xmlBufAdd(buf, BAD_CAST "&", 5);
             cur++;
             base = cur;
-        } else if ((*cur >= 0x80) && ((doc == NULL) ||
-                                      (doc->encoding == NULL))) {
+        } else if ((*cur >= 0x80) && (cur[1] != 0) &&
+	           ((doc == NULL) || (doc->encoding == NULL))) {
             /*
              * We assume we have UTF-8 content.
              */
@@ -2121,14 +2121,14 @@ xmlBufAttrSerializeTxtContent(xmlBufPtr buf, xmlDocPtr doc,
                 val <<= 6;
                 val |= (cur[1]) & 0x3F;
                 l = 2;
-            } else if (*cur < 0xF0) {
+            } else if ((*cur < 0xF0) && (cur [2] != 0)) {
                 val = (cur[0]) & 0x0F;
                 val <<= 6;
                 val |= (cur[1]) & 0x3F;
                 val <<= 6;
                 val |= (cur[2]) & 0x3F;
                 l = 3;
-            } else if (*cur < 0xF8) {
+            } else if ((*cur < 0xF8) && (cur [2] != 0) && (cur[3] != 0)) {
                 val = (cur[0]) & 0x07;
                 val <<= 6;
                 val |= (cur[1]) & 0x3F;