So, after working on our puzzling issue, we have found the root cause of chap failing instance: Our equipment vendor is putting this in the end device 4867467528286D35655B523F585C5359. But freeradius needs to see this value: HgFu((m5e[R?X\\SY. This value is the "Escaped" value of the above hex. In the radius db we have the hex value stored like this: 4867467528286D35655B523F585C5359. Are there any suggestions on how we could easily convert this to the 'Escaped' value either with SQL changes or writing a perl plugin or something else that we have missed? Here is how it can be converted in Postgres: # select encode(E'\\x4867467528286D35655B523F585C5359','escape'); encode ------------------- HgFu((m5e[R?X\\SY (1 row) Any suggestions? One idea I have is to change the SQL select statement FR uses, at least if we find one that works right... -- regards, Joseph