diff --git a/lib/nsca.rb b/lib/nsca.rb
index a60ffc6..d3cb622 100644
--- a/lib/nsca.rb
+++ b/lib/nsca.rb
@@ -67,15 +67,18 @@ module NSCA
 		end
 
 		# Builds a null terminated, null padded string of length maxlen
-		def str2cstr( str, maxlen = nil)
+		def str2cstr str, maxlen = nil
 			str = str.to_s
 			str = str.to_s[0..(maxlen-2)]  if maxlen
 			"#{str}\x00"
 		end
-		def str2nstr( str, maxlen = nil)
-			str = str.to_s.gsub( ' ', "\x00")
+		def rand_padding( str, maxlen) str + SecureRandom.random_bytes( maxlen - str.length) end
+		def str2cstr_rand_padding( str, maxlen = nil) rand_padding str2cstr( str, maxlen), maxlen end
+		def str2nstr str, maxlen = nil
+			str = str.to_s.gsub ' ', "\x00"
 			"#{str} "
 		end
+		def str2nstr_rand_padding( str, maxlen = nil) rand_padding str2nstr( str, maxlen), maxlen end
 		def cstr2str( str, maxlen = nil)  str[ 0, str.index( ?\0) || ((maxlen||str.length+1)-1)]  end
 		def nstr2str( str, maxlen = nil)  str[ 0, str.index( ' ') || ((maxlen||str.length+1)-1)].gsub( "\x00", ' ')  end
 	end
diff --git a/lib/nsca/packet.rb b/lib/nsca/packet.rb
index 204863f..ccbbc87 100644
--- a/lib/nsca/packet.rb
+++ b/lib/nsca/packet.rb
@@ -60,9 +60,9 @@ module NSCA
 				0, # crc32 (unknown yet)
 				(timestamp || Time.now).to_i,
 				return_code.to_i,
-				NSCA::str2cstr( hostname || `hostname -f`, cl::HOSTNAME_LENGTH),
-				NSCA::str2cstr( service, cl::SERVICE_LENGTH),
-				NSCA::str2cstr( status, cl::PLUGIN_OUTPUT_LENGTH) # incl perfdata
+				NSCA::str2cstr_rand_padding( hostname || `hostname -f`, cl::HOSTNAME_LENGTH),
+				NSCA::str2cstr_rand_padding( service, cl::SERVICE_LENGTH),
+				NSCA::str2cstr_rand_padding( status, cl::PLUGIN_OUTPUT_LENGTH) # incl perfdata
 			]
 			# generate crc32 and put it at entry[2...6]
 			entry[1] = NSCA::crc32 entry.pack( cl::PACK_STRING)