ssh-askpass not UTF-8/Unicode-aware

[Matthias Dieter Wallnöfer]

A call of ssh-askpass with a string containing non-ASCII characters like äöü doesn't get interpreted correctly in the message box's label.

A quick look to the source reveals that the software is still based on the outdated XDrawString() call, which is not Unicode-compatible (reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40123008/iso-10646-xfont-encoding-issue/40267110#40267110).

lines 884 - 891 in x11-ssh-askpass.c:
> y = label.w.y + t->ascent;
> while (NULL != t) {
> if (t->text) {
> XDrawString(app->dpy, draw, app->textGC, x, y, t->text,
> t->textLength);
> }
> y += t->descent;
> t = t->next;

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[schamane (schamane)]

Confirming for up-to-date but otherwise unmodified Ubuntu 18.04.1.
ssh-askpass fails to render the chars, ssh-askpass-gnome works as expected.

[Matthias Dieter Wallnöfer (mwallnoefer)]

Is the tool still maintained? Does it make sense to keep the issue open?