diff --git a/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup b/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup
index 1695ac0c2..e5563cddb 100755
--- a/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup
+++ b/salt/common/tools/sbin/soup
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 #    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 . /usr/sbin/so-common
+export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
 
 UPDATE_DIR=/tmp/sogh/securityonion
 DEFAULT_SALT_DIR=/opt/so/saltstack/default