diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8755a1c..8425b8f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -61,7 +61,14 @@ this crate adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
   rebuilt the router with the pre-cap-change semaphore, silently
   reverting the cap. Builder state is now assembled in one shared
   `router_state()` helper, so every `with_*` rebuild sees the current
-  configuration.
+  configuration. Pinned by the WS session-cap integration test running
+  with a builder call after `with_ws_max_sessions`, and by an
+  ownership-wiring-survives-rebuild test at the HTTP surface.
+- Door-surface Basic parsing no longer requires the password field to
+  be UTF-8: the decoded password bytes reach
+  `IdentityProvider::resolve_from_token()` byte-faithfully, so RFC 7617
+  legacy ISO-8859-1 credentials (e.g. a latin-1 user password) that a
+  provider resolves still authenticate instead of parsing to `None`.
 
 Minor bump 0.7.0 → 0.8.0 per the dep-wave convention (0.4.0 rode
 alkcall 0.7.0, 0.5.0 rode 0.8.0, 0.7.0 rode 0.9.0): the re-exported
diff --git a/src/gateway/routes.rs b/src/gateway/routes.rs
index ed9d613..524f956 100644
--- a/src/gateway/routes.rs
+++ b/src/gateway/routes.rs
@@ -1066,6 +1066,32 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn ownership_fallback_wiring_survives_a_later_builder_rebuild() {
+        let provider: Arc<dyn IdentityProvider> =
+            Arc::new(StaticIdentityProvider::new().with_token(
+                "tok-a",
+                identity_with_resources("token-carrier", "blob-namespace", Some(vec!["read"])),
+            ));
+        let adapter = crate::server::HttpAdapter::new(provider, registry_with_namespace_gated_op())
+            .with_static_ownership_fallback()
+            .with_decoy(crate::server::DecoyConfig::NotFound);
+
+        let (status, body) = post_call(
+            adapter.router().clone(),
+            "tok-a",
+            "ns/stat",
+            json!({ "namespace": "ns-1" }),
+        )
+        .await;
+        assert_eq!(
+            status,
+            StatusCode::OK,
+            "the wiring must survive the with_decoy state rebuild — the pre-router_state() \
+             builder shape silently dropped values set by earlier calls: {body}"
+        );
+    }
+
     fn registry_with_echo() -> Arc<OperationRegistry> {
         let registry = OperationRegistry::new();
         registry
diff --git a/src/server/auth.rs b/src/server/auth.rs
index a202849..a81b2c2 100644
--- a/src/server/auth.rs
+++ b/src/server/auth.rs
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ pub fn extract_bearer_identity(
     identity_provider: &dyn IdentityProvider,
 ) -> Option<Identity> {
     resolve_token_str(
-        bearer_token(request.headers().get(AUTHORIZATION)),
+        bearer_token(request.headers().get(AUTHORIZATION)).map(String::into_bytes),
         identity_provider,
     )
 }
@@ -110,7 +110,10 @@ pub fn extract_bearer_identity(
 /// password field (the token; the Git-PAT shape — user, `x-access-token`
 /// and similar are ignored by resolution) through the same
 /// `IdentityProvider::resolve_from_token()` backend as a Bearer token.
-/// A colon-less value is treated as a bare password. Unparseable or
+/// The password bytes are passed to the backend with no UTF-8
+/// round-trip, so RFC 7617 legacy ISO-8859-1 credentials reach the
+/// provider byte-faithfully. A colon-less value is treated as a bare
+/// password. Unparseable or
 /// unresolvable credentials resolve to `None` — the same no-token
 /// fallback as [`extract_bearer_identity`].
 pub fn extract_door_identity(
@@ -119,7 +122,7 @@ pub fn extract_door_identity(
 ) -> Option<Identity> {
     let header = request.headers().get(AUTHORIZATION)?;
     let credential = match bearer_token(Some(header)) {
-        Some(token) => token,
+        Some(token) => token.into_bytes(),
         None => basic_password(header)?,
     };
     resolve_token_str(Some(credential), identity_provider)
@@ -133,28 +136,25 @@ fn bearer_token(header: Option<&http::HeaderValue>) -> Option<String> {
         .map(str::to_owned)
 }
 
-fn basic_password(header: &http::HeaderValue) -> Option<String> {
+fn basic_password(header: &http::HeaderValue) -> Option<Vec<u8>> {
     use base64::Engine as _;
 
     let encoded = header.to_str().ok()?.strip_prefix("Basic ")?;
     let decoded = base64::engine::general_purpose::STANDARD
         .decode(encoded.trim())
         .ok()?;
-    let decoded = String::from_utf8(decoded).ok()?;
-    let password = match decoded.split_once(':') {
-        Some((_user, password)) => password,
-        None => &decoded,
+    let password = match decoded.iter().position(|&byte| byte == b':') {
+        Some(colon) => &decoded[colon + 1..],
+        None => &decoded[..],
     };
-    Some(password.to_owned())
+    Some(password.to_vec())
 }
 
 fn resolve_token_str(
-    token_str: Option<String>,
+    token_bytes: Option<Vec<u8>>,
     identity_provider: &dyn IdentityProvider,
 ) -> Option<Identity> {
-    let token = AuthToken {
-        raw: token_str?.into_bytes(),
-    };
+    let token = AuthToken { raw: token_bytes? };
     identity_provider.resolve_from_token(&token)
 }
 
@@ -287,6 +287,28 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(crate::server::auth::extract_door_identity(&req, &idp).is_some());
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn door_extract_passes_non_utf8_basic_password_bytes_through() {
+        // RFC 7617 legacy ISO-8859-1 credential: "passwörd" (ö = 0xF6 in
+        // latin-1) — invalid UTF-8, must still reach `resolve_from_token`
+        // as the raw bytes rather than parsing to `None`.
+        struct ByteProvider;
+        impl IdentityProvider for ByteProvider {
+            fn resolve_from_fingerprint(&self, _: &str) -> Option<Identity> {
+                None
+            }
+            fn resolve_from_token(&self, token: &AuthToken) -> Option<Identity> {
+                (token.raw == b"passw\xf6rd"[..]).then(sample_identity)
+            }
+        }
+        let req = request_with_authorization(Some("Basic dXNlcjpwYXNzd/ZyZA=="));
+        let identity = crate::server::auth::extract_door_identity(&req, &ByteProvider);
+        assert!(
+            identity.is_some(),
+            "a latin-1 password resolves byte-faithfully"
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn door_extract_treats_colonless_basic_as_a_bare_password() {
         struct BareProvider;
diff --git a/tests/ws_upgrade_session.rs b/tests/ws_upgrade_session.rs
index ed3ffc5..fa34bfd 100644
--- a/tests/ws_upgrade_session.rs
+++ b/tests/ws_upgrade_session.rs
@@ -806,9 +806,13 @@ async fn session_cap_rejects_over_limit_with_503_and_frees_slots_on_end() {
     }
 
     // The adapter's built-in surface: WS route + bearer middleware, the
-    // whole deployment shape the cap knob configures.
-    let adapter =
-        HttpAdapter::new(Arc::new(StaticTok), Arc::clone(&registry)).with_ws_max_sessions(1);
+    // whole deployment shape the cap knob configures. A builder call
+    // after `with_ws_max_sessions` must not revert the cap (the
+    // pre-`router_state()` builder shape rebuilt the router from the
+    // un-stored fresh semaphore).
+    let adapter = HttpAdapter::new(Arc::new(StaticTok), Arc::clone(&registry))
+        .with_ws_max_sessions(1)
+        .with_decoy(alkhttp::server::DecoyConfig::default());
     let listener = tokio::net::TcpListener::bind("127.0.0.1:0").await.unwrap();
     let addr = format!("ws://{}", listener.local_addr().unwrap());
     let app: axum::Router = adapter.router().clone();