diff --git a/cyclonedx_py/client.py b/cyclonedx_py/client.py
index c4a70ce3..ee7113d4 100644
--- a/cyclonedx_py/client.py
+++ b/cyclonedx_py/client.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 from datetime import datetime
 from typing import Any, Optional
 
+from chardet import detect as chardetect  # type:ignore[import]
 from cyclonedx.model import Tool
 from cyclonedx.model.bom import Bom
 from cyclonedx.output import BaseOutput, OutputFormat, SchemaVersion, get_instance as get_output_instance
@@ -270,11 +271,13 @@ def _get_input_parser(self) -> BaseParser:
                     raise CycloneDxCmdNoInputFileSupplied(
                         'When using input from Conda JSON, you need to pipe input via STDIN')
                 elif self._arguments.input_from_pip:
-                    self._arguments.input_source = open(os.path.join(current_directory, 'Pipfile.lock'), 'r')
+                    self._arguments.input_source = open(os.path.join(current_directory, 'Pipfile.lock'),
+                                                        'rt', encoding="UTF-8")
                 elif self._arguments.input_from_poetry:
-                    self._arguments.input_source = open(os.path.join(current_directory, 'poetry.lock'), 'r')
+                    self._arguments.input_source = open(os.path.join(current_directory, 'poetry.lock'),
+                                                        'rt', encoding="UTF-8")
                 elif self._arguments.input_from_requirements:
-                    self._arguments.input_source = open(os.path.join(current_directory, 'requirements.txt'), 'r')
+                    self._arguments.input_source = open(os.path.join(current_directory, 'requirements.txt'), 'rb')
                 else:
                     raise CycloneDxCmdException('Parser type could not be determined.')
             except FileNotFoundError as error:
@@ -285,6 +288,11 @@ def _get_input_parser(self) -> BaseParser:
         input_data_fh = self._arguments.input_source
         with input_data_fh:
             input_data = input_data_fh.read()
+            if isinstance(input_data, bytes):
+                input_encoding = chardetect(input_data)['encoding'].replace(
+                    # replace Windows-encoding with code-page
+                    'Windows-', 'cp')
+                input_data = input_data.decode(input_encoding)
             input_data_fh.close()
 
         if self._arguments.input_from_conda_explicit:
diff --git a/deps.lowest.r b/deps.lowest.r
index fa7b3199..acea466d 100644
--- a/deps.lowest.r
+++ b/deps.lowest.r
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ cyclonedx-python-lib == 2.0.0
 packageurl-python == 0.9.0
 importlib-metadata == 3.4.0 # ; python_version < '3.8'
 pip-requirements-parser == 32.0.0
+chardet == 5.0.0
 setuptools == 47.0.0
 types-setuptools == 57.0.0
 toml == 0.10.0
diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index 12a9dac3..e6b4e956 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -24,6 +24,14 @@ python-versions = "*"
 pycodestyle = ">=2.8.0"
 toml = "*"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "chardet"
+version = "5.0.0"
+description = "Universal encoding detector for Python 3"
+category = "main"
+optional = false
+python-versions = ">=3.6"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "colorama"
 version = "0.4.4"
@@ -459,7 +467,7 @@ testing = ["func-timeout", "jaraco.itertools", "pytest (>=4.6)", "pytest-black (
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "1.1"
 python-versions = "^3.6"
-content-hash = "f4a134c4de7476924635c11b364c6b9177bce308a6226a827d555af00209b0bf"
+content-hash = "fea373d1e3db503671ee52c8931458255e10e7ddf68954cce9ad4dd0a83f2371"
 
 [metadata.files]
 attrs = [
@@ -470,6 +478,10 @@ autopep8 = [
     {file = "autopep8-1.6.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:ed77137193bbac52d029a52c59bec1b0629b5a186c495f1eb21b126ac466083f"},
     {file = "autopep8-1.6.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:44f0932855039d2c15c4510d6df665e4730f2b8582704fa48f9c55bd3e17d979"},
 ]
+chardet = [
+    {file = "chardet-5.0.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:d3e64f022d254183001eccc5db4040520c0f23b1a3f33d6413e099eb7f126557"},
+    {file = "chardet-5.0.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:0368df2bfd78b5fc20572bb4e9bb7fb53e2c094f60ae9993339e8671d0afb8aa"},
+]
 colorama = [
     {file = "colorama-0.4.4-py2.py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:9f47eda37229f68eee03b24b9748937c7dc3868f906e8ba69fbcbdd3bc5dc3e2"},
     {file = "colorama-0.4.4.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:5941b2b48a20143d2267e95b1c2a7603ce057ee39fd88e7329b0c292aa16869b"},
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 2c8b275c..ade31aca 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ importlib-metadata = { version = ">= 3.4", python = "< 3.8" }
 pip-requirements-parser = "^32.0.0"
 setuptools = ">= 47.0.0"
 toml = "^0.10.0"
+chardet = "^5.0"
 
 [tool.poetry.dev-dependencies]
 autopep8 = "^1.6.0"
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/.editorconfig b/tests/fixtures/.editorconfig
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3de20f11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/.editorconfig
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+
+[*.cp1252.txt.bin]
+charset = unset
+end_of_line = crlf
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/.gitattributes b/tests/fixtures/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b1ce527a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+*.bin       binary
+*.txt.bin   binary diff=text
+
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/requirements-regression-issue448.cp1252.txt.bin b/tests/fixtures/requirements-regression-issue448.cp1252.txt.bin
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3ae70eb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/requirements-regression-issue448.cp1252.txt.bin
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# This is a regression test for https://github.com/CycloneDX/cyclonedx-python/issues/448
+# This file is in `cp1252` encoding - on purpose
+# This file uses CRLF for line endings - on purpose
+# some encoding specific characters: €‚ƒ„…†‡ˆ‰Š‹ŒŽ‘’“”•–—˜™š›œžŸ
+
+packageurl-python>=0.9.4
+requirements_parser>=0.2.0
+setuptools>=50.3.2