diff --git a/src/class_objectProcessor.py b/src/class_objectProcessor.py
index 3e3261ad..cad8fe63 100644
--- a/src/class_objectProcessor.py
+++ b/src/class_objectProcessor.py
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ class objectProcessor(threading.Thread):
             sqlExecute(
                 'UPDATE sent SET status=?, lastactiontime=?'
                 ' WHERE ackdata=?',
-                ' ackreceived', int(time.time()), data[readPosition:])
+                'ackreceived', int(time.time()), data[readPosition:])
             queues.UISignalQueue.put((
                 'updateSentItemStatusByAckdata',
                 (data[readPosition:],
@@ -383,9 +383,9 @@ class objectProcessor(threading.Thread):
             signatureLength, signatureLengthLength = decodeVarint(
                 data[readPosition:readPosition + 10])
             readPosition += signatureLengthLength
-            signature = data[readPosition:readPosition + signatureLength]
+            signature = bytes(data[readPosition:readPosition + signatureLength])
             if highlevelcrypto.verify(
-                    data[8:endOfSignedDataPosition],
+                    bytes(data[8:endOfSignedDataPosition]),
                     signature, hexlify(publicSigningKey)):
                 logger.debug('ECDSA verify passed (within processpubkey)')
             else:
diff --git a/src/highlevelcrypto.py b/src/highlevelcrypto.py
index c2d9ebb2..03e2d1d3 100644
--- a/src/highlevelcrypto.py
+++ b/src/highlevelcrypto.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ def makeCryptor(privkey):
 def hexToPubkey(pubkey):
     """Convert a pubkey from hex to binary"""
     pubkey_raw = a.changebase(pubkey[2:], 16, 256, minlen=64)
-    pubkey_bin = '\x02\xca\x00 ' + pubkey_raw[:32] + '\x00 ' + pubkey_raw[32:]
+    pubkey_bin = '\x02\xca\x00 '.encode('raw_unicode_escape') + pubkey_raw[:32] + '\x00 '.encode() + pubkey_raw[32:]
     return pubkey_bin