diff --git a/lib/msf/core/db_manager/import.rb b/lib/msf/core/db_manager/import.rb
index 8b994583b6..641cfbe1b3 100644
--- a/lib/msf/core/db_manager/import.rb
+++ b/lib/msf/core/db_manager/import.rb
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ module Msf::DBManager::Import
     end
 
     # This is a text string, lets make sure its treated as binary
-    data.force_encoding(Encoding::ASCII_8BIT)
+    data = data.unpack("Q*").pack("Q*")
     if data and data.to_s.strip.length == 0
       raise Msf::DBImportError.new("The data provided to the import function was empty")
     end