diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index ddd4cd0f1d..187c0b0ecc 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
 
+2.4-117 | 2015-08-30 22:16:24 -0700
+
+  * Fix initialization of a pointer in RDP analyzer. (Daniel
+    Thayer/Robin Sommer)
+
 2.4-115 | 2015-08-30 21:57:35 -0700
 
   * Enable Bro to leverage packet fanout mode on Linux. (Kris
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 8a586d4dd2..eb8f6706b2 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.4-115
+2.4-117
diff --git a/src/ConvertUTF.h b/src/ConvertUTF.h
index 9be51e57f1..4eb7900e9f 100644
--- a/src/ConvertUTF.h
+++ b/src/ConvertUTF.h
@@ -91,6 +91,8 @@
     targetEnd. Note: the end pointers are *after* the last item: e.g.
     *(sourceEnd - 1) is the last item.
 
+    !!! NOTE: The source and end pointers must be aligned properly !!!
+
     The return result indicates whether the conversion was successful,
     and if not, whether the problem was in the source or target buffers.
     (Only the first encountered problem is indicated.)
@@ -199,18 +201,22 @@ ConversionResult ConvertUTF8toUTF32(
   const UTF8** sourceStart, const UTF8* sourceEnd,
   UTF32** targetStart, UTF32* targetEnd, ConversionFlags flags);
 
+/* NOTE: The source and end pointers must be aligned properly. */
 ConversionResult ConvertUTF16toUTF8 (
   const UTF16** sourceStart, const UTF16* sourceEnd,
   UTF8** targetStart, UTF8* targetEnd, ConversionFlags flags);
 
+/* NOTE: The source and end pointers must be aligned properly. */
 ConversionResult ConvertUTF32toUTF8 (
   const UTF32** sourceStart, const UTF32* sourceEnd,
   UTF8** targetStart, UTF8* targetEnd, ConversionFlags flags);
 
+/* NOTE: The source and end pointers must be aligned properly. */
 ConversionResult ConvertUTF16toUTF32 (
   const UTF16** sourceStart, const UTF16* sourceEnd,
   UTF32** targetStart, UTF32* targetEnd, ConversionFlags flags);
 
+/* NOTE: The source and end pointers must be aligned properly. */
 ConversionResult ConvertUTF32toUTF16 (
   const UTF32** sourceStart, const UTF32* sourceEnd,
   UTF16** targetStart, UTF16* targetEnd, ConversionFlags flags);
diff --git a/src/analyzer/protocol/rdp/rdp-analyzer.pac b/src/analyzer/protocol/rdp/rdp-analyzer.pac
index a70d55fb7b..c70f87460e 100644
--- a/src/analyzer/protocol/rdp/rdp-analyzer.pac
+++ b/src/analyzer/protocol/rdp/rdp-analyzer.pac
@@ -9,9 +9,8 @@ refine flow RDP_Flow += {
 	function utf16_to_utf8_val(utf16: bytestring): StringVal
 		%{
 		std::string resultstring;
-		size_t widesize = utf16.length();
 
-		size_t utf8size = 3 * widesize + 1;
+		size_t utf8size = (3 * utf16.length() + 1);
 
 		if ( utf8size > resultstring.max_size() )
 			{
@@ -20,8 +19,16 @@ refine flow RDP_Flow += {
 			}
 
 		resultstring.resize(utf8size, '\0');
-		const UTF16* sourcestart = reinterpret_cast<const UTF16*>(utf16.begin());
-		const UTF16* sourceend = sourcestart + widesize;
+
+		// We can't assume that the string data is properly aligned
+		// here, so make a copy.
+		UTF16 utf16_copy[utf16.length()]; // Twice as much memory than necessary.
+		memcpy(utf16_copy, utf16.begin(), utf16.length());
+
+		char* utf16_copy_end = reinterpret_cast<const char*>(utf16_copy) + utf16.length();
+		const UTF16* sourcestart = utf16_copy;
+		const UTF16* sourceend = reinterpret_cast<UTF16*>(utf16_copy_end);
+
 		UTF8* targetstart = reinterpret_cast<UTF8*>(&resultstring[0]);
 		UTF8* targetend = targetstart + utf8size;
 
@@ -37,6 +44,7 @@ refine flow RDP_Flow += {
 			}
 
 		*targetstart = 0;
+
 		// We're relying on no nulls being in the string.
 		return new StringVal(resultstring.c_str());
 		%}