[saml-dev] Question about the base64 encoding in Browser/POST profile

I am trying to prototype the Browser/POST profile and I have
a question about the use of base64 in this profile. In step 2 of this profile,
the base64 encoding of a SAML response is embedded in a HTML form. In order to
do this you must first serialize the SAML response to a sequence of octets,
which can then be base64 encoded. What character encoding is supposed to be used
to serialize the SAML response to a sequence of octets? Do you use the character
encoding of the HTTP message? It seems like the SAML response could be
serialized using a character encoding that is different than the HTTP message.
In this case, how would be destination site known what characeter encoding
should be used when decoding the SAML response? 

 

Any insight you can provide would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Jon Westbrock