  Small black holes in string theory are characterized by a classically
singular horizon with vanishing Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. It has been argued
that higher-curvature corrections resolve the horizon and that the associated
Wald entropy is in agreement with the microscopic degeneracy. In this note we
study the heterotic two-charge small black hole and question this result, which
we claim is caused by a misidentification of the fundamental constituents of
the system studied when higher-curvature interactions are present. On the one
hand, we show that quadratic curvature corrections do not solve the singular
horizon of small black holes. On the other, we argue that the resolution of the
heterotic small black hole reported in the literature involves the introduction
of solitonic 5-branes, whose asymptotic charge vanishes due to a screening
effect induced by the higher-curvature interactions, and a Kaluza-Klein
monopole, whose charge remains unscreened.
