Des3encrypt and des3decrypt problem across the databases

Question

I have used des3encrypt to encrypt some data in instance 1. In instance 1,
I can use des3decrypt to decrypt that data.
Now I did a full export of database using expdp full=Y
I recreated my database (instance 2) and did full import using impdp full=Y.
I am however finding when I use des3decrypt with same key which was used to encrypt;
desdecrypt gives garbage data. In Instance 2, if I create some new data
and encrypt using des3encryprt. I can then decrypt it using des3decrypt without problem.
Similarly If I do expdp of a table in instance 2 which contains encrypted data and
Then delete that table in instance 2 and do an impdp of that table, data comes back encrypted and
Then I can decrypt it using des3decrypt. So expdp and impdp are capable of keeping encrypted data.
I am using same key in all encrypt/decrypt functions. If anyone has insight in above problem, please let me know. Thanks,

Answer 1

Are you storing the encrypted data in a VARCHAR2 column? Or in a RAW column? And which overloaded variant of Des3Encrypt and Des3Decrypt are you using?
I would strongly suggest that you store encrypted data in a RAW column because encrypted data is essentially binary data. If you store data in a VARCHAR2 column, the Oracle Net layer is going to potentially perform character set conversion every time it is sent over the wire. If that happens, your encrypted data is going to be corrupted, which is what I'm wagering is happening in your EXP process. On the other hand, if you stored the data in a RAW column, Oracle would know never to do character set conversion.
Justin