diff --git a/lib/tls.js b/lib/tls.js
index ed6c5a7d44..e184c29d7a 100644
--- a/lib/tls.js
+++ b/lib/tls.js
@@ -1296,7 +1296,10 @@ exports.connect = function(/* [port, host], options, cb */) {
                             });
 
   if (options.session) {
-    pair.ssl.setSession(options.session);
+    var session = options.session;
+    if (typeof session === 'string')
+      session = new Buffer(session, 'binary');
+    pair.ssl.setSession(session);
   }
 
   var cleartext = pipe(pair, socket);