diff --git a/lib/new-admin/services/pairing.js b/lib/new-admin/services/pairing.js
index 14effa24..dc92cbd2 100644
--- a/lib/new-admin/services/pairing.js
+++ b/lib/new-admin/services/pairing.js
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ const pify = require('pify')
 const readFile = pify(fs.readFile)
 const crypto = require('crypto')
 const baseX = require('base-x')
-const { NIL } = require('uuid')
+const { parse, NIL } = require('uuid')
 
 const options = require('../../options')
 const db = require('../../db')
@@ -16,11 +16,13 @@ const unpair = pairing.unpair
 
 function totem (name) {
   const caPath = options.caPath
+  const cleanNil = [...parse(NIL)].map(it => it.toString(16).padStart(2, '0')).join('')
+  const nilBuffer = Buffer.from(cleanNil, 'hex')
 
   return readFile(caPath)
     .then(data => {
       const caHash = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(data).digest()
-      const token = Buffer.concat([crypto.randomBytes(32), NIL])
+      const token = Buffer.concat([crypto.randomBytes(32), nilBuffer])
       const hexToken = token.toString('hex')
       const caHexToken = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(hexToken).digest('hex')
       const buf = Buffer.concat([caHash, token, Buffer.from(options.hostname)])