Preliminary research

Beyond Normalization: The Expanding Unicode Attack Surface

Ryan Barnett and Isabella Barnett · Black Hat USA

AI-collected research leads through 6 October 2026, including bounded month-by-month reviews of selected social and community sources from January through September. Unranked, incomplete, not community-vetted, and subject to change.

Maps Unicode processing across byte decoding, regex options, URL conversion, Java hexadecimal parsing and cookie or database comparison. Pipeline diagrams and contrasting configurations show how inspection and later use can disagree when intermediate transformations alter characters or their representation.

Record

Researcher

Ryan Barnett and Isabella Barnett

Published by

Black Hat USA

Format

Whitepaper

In the archive

• Collected in the 2026 preliminary research sweep

Tags

• unicode
• encoding
• parser-differential
• filter-bypass
• waf-bypass
• owasp-a05-2021

This page is the archive's own catalogue record. The research is the work of Ryan Barnett and Isabella Barnett, first published at the original source. Preserved copies are kept so the citation survives its host.