diff --git a/src/add-ons/input_server/devices/keyboard/KeyboardInputDevice.cpp b/src/add-ons/input_server/devices/keyboard/KeyboardInputDevice.cpp
index abc9f53a32..41cb3430e2 100644
--- a/src/add-ons/input_server/devices/keyboard/KeyboardInputDevice.cpp
+++ b/src/add-ons/input_server/devices/keyboard/KeyboardInputDevice.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * Copyright 2004-2006, Jérôme Duval. All rights reserved.
  * Copyright 2005-2008, Axel Dörfler, axeld@pinc-software.de.
- * Copyright 2008, Stephan Aßmus, superstippi@gmx.de.
+ * Copyright 2008-2009, Stephan Aßmus, superstippi@gmx.de.
  *
  * Distributed under the terms of the MIT License.
  */
@@ -43,17 +43,17 @@
 			fFunctionDepth++;
 			fPrepend.Append(' ', fFunctionDepth * 2);
 			fFunctionName << className << "::" << functionName << "()";
-	
+
 			debug_printf("%p -> %s%s {\n", fPointer, fPrepend.String(),
 				fFunctionName.String());
 		}
-	
+
 		 ~FunctionTracer()
 		{
 			debug_printf("%p -> %s}\n", fPointer, fPrepend.String());
 			fFunctionDepth--;
 		}
-	
+
 	private:
 		BString	fFunctionName;
 		BString	fPrepend;
@@ -733,10 +733,9 @@ KeyboardDevice::_ControlThread()
 			msg->AddInt32("modifiers", fModifiers);
 			msg->AddData("states", B_UINT8_TYPE, states, 16);
 			if (numBytes > 0) {
-				for (int i = 0; i < numBytes; i++) {
+				for (int i = 0; i < numBytes; i++)
 					msg->AddInt8("byte", (int8)string[i]);
-				}
-				msg->AddString("bytes", string);
+				msg->AddData("bytes", B_STRING_TYPE, string, numBytes);
 
 				if (rawNumBytes <= 0) {
 					rawNumBytes = 1;
diff --git a/src/kits/interface/Window.cpp b/src/kits/interface/Window.cpp
index e464fb252f..721efee296 100644
--- a/src/kits/interface/Window.cpp
+++ b/src/kits/interface/Window.cpp
@@ -1114,8 +1114,11 @@ FrameMoved(origin);
 					// different font encoding per view (it's supposed to be
 					// converted by _HandleKeyDown() one day)
 					const char* string;
-					if (msg->FindString("bytes", &string) == B_OK)
-						view->KeyDown(string, strlen(string));
+					ssize_t bytes;
+					if (msg->FindData("bytes", B_STRING_TYPE,
+						(const void**)&string, &bytes) == B_OK) {
+						view->KeyDown(string, bytes);
+					}
 				} else
 					target->MessageReceived(msg);
 			}
@@ -1124,13 +1127,15 @@ FrameMoved(origin);
 
 		case B_KEY_UP:
 		{
-			const char* string = NULL;
-			msg->FindString("bytes", &string);
-
 			// TODO: same as above
-			if (BView* view = dynamic_cast<BView*>(target))
-				view->KeyUp(string, strlen(string));
-			else
+			if (BView* view = dynamic_cast<BView*>(target)) {
+				const char* string;
+				ssize_t bytes;
+				if (msg->FindData("bytes", B_STRING_TYPE,
+					(const void**)&string, &bytes) == B_OK) {
+					view->KeyUp(string, bytes);
+				}
+			} else
 				target->MessageReceived(msg);
 			break;
 		}