diff --git a/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ImportController.php b/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ImportController.php
index 2a4d91c3d98e..41597cd2c5d6 100644
--- a/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ImportController.php
+++ b/app/Http/Controllers/Api/ImportController.php
@@ -66,25 +66,41 @@ public function store() : JsonResponse
                 if (! ini_get('auto_detect_line_endings')) {
                     ini_set('auto_detect_line_endings', '1');
                 }
-                $file_contents = $file->getContent(); //TODO - this *does* load the whole file in RAM, but we need that to be able to 'iconv' it?
-                $encoding = $detector->getEncoding($file_contents);
-                $reader = null;
-                if (strcasecmp($encoding, 'UTF-8') != 0) {
-                    $transliterated = iconv($encoding, 'UTF-8', $file_contents);
-                    if ($transliterated !== false) {
-                        $tmpname = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), '');
-                        $tmpresults = file_put_contents($tmpname, $transliterated);
-                        if ($tmpresults !== false) {
+                if (function_exists('iconv')) {
+                    $file_contents = $file->getContent(); //TODO - this *does* load the whole file in RAM, but we need that to be able to 'iconv' it?
+                    $encoding = $detector->getEncoding($file_contents);
+                    \Log::warning("Discovered encoding: $encoding in uploaded CSV");
+                    $reader = null;
+                    if (strcasecmp($encoding, 'UTF-8') != 0) {
+                        $transliterated = false;
+                        try {
+                            $transliterated = iconv(strtoupper($encoding), 'UTF-8', $file_contents);
+                        } catch (\Exception $e) {
+                            $transliterated = false; //blank out the partially-decoded string
+                            return response()->json(
+                                Helper::formatStandardApiResponse(
+                                    'error',
+                                    null,
+                                    trans('admin/hardware/message.import.transliterate_failure', ["encoding" => $encoding])
+                                ),
+                                422
+                            );
+                        }
+                        if ($transliterated !== false) {
+                            $tmpname = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), '');
+                            $tmpresults = file_put_contents($tmpname, $transliterated);
                             $transliterated = null; //save on memory?
-                            $newfile = new UploadedFile($tmpname, $file->getClientOriginalName(), null, null, true); //WARNING: this is enabling 'test mode' - which is gross, but otherwise the file won't be treated as 'uploaded'
-                            if ($newfile->isValid()) {
-                                $file = $newfile;
+                            if ($tmpresults !== false) {
+                                $newfile = new UploadedFile($tmpname, $file->getClientOriginalName(), null, null, true); //WARNING: this is enabling 'test mode' - which is gross, but otherwise the file won't be treated as 'uploaded'
+                                if ($newfile->isValid()) {
+                                    $file = $newfile;
+                                }
                             }
                         }
                     }
+                    $file_contents = null; //try to save on memory, I guess?
                 }
                 $reader = Reader::createFromFileObject($file->openFile('r')); //file pointer leak?
-                $file_contents = null; //try to save on memory, I guess?
 
                 try {
                     $import->header_row = $reader->fetchOne(0);
diff --git a/resources/lang/en-US/admin/hardware/message.php b/resources/lang/en-US/admin/hardware/message.php
index 605c1fe230e2..6806682f5899 100644
--- a/resources/lang/en-US/admin/hardware/message.php
+++ b/resources/lang/en-US/admin/hardware/message.php
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
         'file_already_deleted' => 'The file selected was already deleted',
         'header_row_has_malformed_characters' => 'One or more attributes in the header row contain malformed UTF-8 characters',
         'content_row_has_malformed_characters' => 'One or more attributes in the first row of content contain malformed UTF-8 characters',
+        'transliterate_failure' => 'Transliteration from :encoding to UTF-8 failed due to invalid characters in input'
     ],
 
 
diff --git a/tests/Feature/Importing/Ui/ImportTest.php b/tests/Feature/Importing/Ui/ImportTest.php
index 2caaa4c097e9..b549dc415d6a 100644
--- a/tests/Feature/Importing/Ui/ImportTest.php
+++ b/tests/Feature/Importing/Ui/ImportTest.php
@@ -45,4 +45,24 @@ public function testStoreInternationalAsset(): void
             ]);
         $this->assertEquals($evil_string, $results->json()['files'][0]['first_row'][0]);
     }
+
+    public function testStoreInternationalAssetMisparse(): void
+    {
+        $evil_maker = function ($arr) {
+            $results = '';
+            foreach ($arr as $thing) {
+                $results .= chr($thing);
+            }
+            return $results;
+        };
+
+        // 0xC0 makes it 'not unicode', and 0xFF makes it 'likely WINDOWS-1251', and 0x98 at the end makes it 'not-valid-Windows-1251'
+        $evil_content = $evil_maker([0xC0, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x98]);
+
+        $this->actingAsForApi(User::factory()->superuser()->create());
+        $results = $this->post(route('api.imports.store'), ['files' => [UploadedFile::fake()->createWithContent("myname.csv", $evil_content)]])
+            ->assertStatus(422)
+            ->assertStatusMessageIs('error')
+            ->assertMessagesAre(trans('admin/hardware/message.import.transliterate_failure', ["encoding" => "windows-1251"]));
+    }
 }