diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
index f64fe34b20..9f7265e7f0 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
@@ -677,7 +677,7 @@ class SSLValidationHandler(urllib_request.BaseHandler):
         valid_codes = [200] if valid_codes is None else valid_codes
 
         try:
-            (http_version, resp_code, msg) = re.match(r'(HTTP/\d\.\d) (\d\d\d) (.*)', response).groups()
+            (http_version, resp_code, msg) = re.match(br'(HTTP/\d\.\d) (\d\d\d) (.*)', response).groups()
             if int(resp_code) not in valid_codes:
                 raise Exception
         except: