diff --git a/test/recipes/90-test_handshake-memfail.t b/test/recipes/90-test_handshake-memfail.t
index 9b1c60f273..793b6136aa 100644
--- a/test/recipes/90-test_handshake-memfail.t
+++ b/test/recipes/90-test_handshake-memfail.t
@@ -33,7 +33,9 @@ run(test(["handshake-memfail", "count", srctop_dir("test", "certs")], stderr =>
 #
 # Read the result file into an array
 #
-my @lines = `cat "$resultdir/countinfo.txt"`;
+open my $handle, '<', "$resultdir/countinfo.txt";
+chomp(my @lines = <$handle>);
+close $handle;
 
 #
 # some line contains our counts, find and split that into an array