Help with Mcrypt

[berbbrown]

Hi All

I am new to encryption and I have the following code (taken from PHP.net)

[FONT="Courier New"]<?php
$cc = 'my secret text';
$key = 'my secret key';
$iv = '12345678';

$cipher = mcrypt_module_open(MCRYPT_BLOWFISH,'','cbc','');

mcrypt_generic_init($cipher, $key, $iv);
$encrypted = base64_encode(mcrypt_generic($cipher,$cc));
mcrypt_generic_deinit($cipher);

mcrypt_generic_init($cipher, $key, $iv);
$decrypted = mdecrypt_generic($cipher,base64_decode($encrypted));
mcrypt_generic_deinit($cipher);

echo "encrypted : ".$encrypted;
echo "<br>";
echo "decrypted : ".$decrypted;
?>[/FONT]

When displayed in the browser:

encrypted : 6xRbcMhxk0jjiA7d1OMWlg==
decrypted : my secret text&#65533;&#65533;

Two question mark characters are added to the end of the decrypted string. Can anyone tell me please why this is?

Thanks in advance.

BB