You really want to use pack/unpack to hex-format your ciphertext, so that they are guaranteed to be alphanumeric.

To wit:

use Crypt::CBC;
$cipher = Crypt::CBC->new( {
    key         => 'SomeSecretKeyHere',
    cipher      => 'Rijndael',
});

my $source_text = "This data is hush hush";
my $cipher_text = unpack('H*', $cipher->encrypt($source_text));
my $decrypted   = $cipher->decrypt(pack('H*', $cipher_text));
[download]

Also, please do not use the fragile DES cipher, as weak crypto is worse than no crypto. Rijndael is much more secure, almost as fast, and equally easy to use.

Thanks,
/Autrijus/