diff --git a/changelog.html b/changelog.html
index 82b2981587..67a84c62dd 100644
--- a/changelog.html
+++ b/changelog.html
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ Upcoming changes</a>
   <li class=bug>
     Fixed a file handle leak in <tt>GET config.xml</tt> API call
     (<a href="https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-8042">issue 8042</a>)
+  <li class=bug>
+    Fixed the redundant/incorrect encoding handling in XML configuration files.
+    (<a href="https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-4525">issue 4525</a>)
   <li class=rfe>
     Groovy script console is now syntax highlighted.
   <li class=rfe>
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/XmlFile.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/XmlFile.java
index a896890829..76cf01adbc 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/XmlFile.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/XmlFile.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream;
 import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConversionException;
 import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.Converter;
 import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.StreamException;
+import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.xml.XppDriver;
 import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.xml.XppReader;
 import hudson.model.Descriptor;
 import hudson.util.AtomicFileWriter;
@@ -42,10 +43,12 @@ import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
 
 import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
+import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.Writer;
@@ -123,9 +126,9 @@ public final class XmlFile {
      */
     public Object read() throws IOException {
         LOGGER.fine("Reading "+file);
-        Reader r = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file), "UTF-8"));
+        InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file));
         try {
-            return xs.fromXML(r);
+            return xs.fromXML(in);
         } catch(StreamException e) {
             throw new IOException2("Unable to read "+file,e);
         } catch(ConversionException e) {
@@ -133,7 +136,7 @@ public final class XmlFile {
         } catch(Error e) {// mostly reflection errors
             throw new IOException2("Unable to read "+file,e);
         } finally {
-            r.close();
+            in.close();
         }
     }
 
@@ -145,9 +148,10 @@ public final class XmlFile {
      *      if the XML representation is completely new.
      */
     public Object unmarshal( Object o ) throws IOException {
-        Reader r = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file),"UTF-8"));
+        InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file));
         try {
-            return xs.unmarshal(new XppReader(r),o);
+            // TODO: expose XStream the driver from XStream
+            return xs.unmarshal(DEFAULT_DRIVER.createReader(in), o);
         } catch (StreamException e) {
             throw new IOException2("Unable to read "+file,e);
         } catch(ConversionException e) {
@@ -155,7 +159,7 @@ public final class XmlFile {
         } catch(Error e) {// mostly reflection errors
             throw new IOException2("Unable to read "+file,e);
         } finally {
-            r.close();
+            in.close();
         }
     }
 
@@ -295,6 +299,8 @@ public final class XmlFile {
 
     private static final SAXParserFactory JAXP = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
 
+    private static final XppDriver DEFAULT_DRIVER = new XppDriver();
+
     static {
         JAXP.setNamespaceAware(true);
     }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/AbstractItem.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/AbstractItem.java
index aff8dc7472..131c51b649 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/AbstractItem.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/AbstractItem.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ import hudson.util.AlternativeUiTextProvider;
 import hudson.util.AlternativeUiTextProvider.Message;
 import hudson.util.AtomicFileWriter;
 import hudson.util.IOException2;
+import hudson.util.IOUtils;
 import jenkins.model.Jenkins;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Copy;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.types.FileSet;
@@ -460,8 +461,8 @@ public abstract class AbstractItem extends Actionable implements Item, HttpDelet
         if (req.getMethod().equals("GET")) {
             // read
             checkPermission(EXTENDED_READ);
-            rsp.setContentType("application/xml;charset=UTF-8");
-            getConfigFile().writeRawTo(rsp.getWriter());
+            rsp.setContentType("application/xml");
+            IOUtils.copy(getConfigFile().getFile(),rsp.getOutputStream());
             return;
         }
         if (req.getMethod().equals("POST")) {