diff --git a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/pom.xml b/maven-plugin-testing-harness/pom.xml
index 2cd6243..6abb84a 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/pom.xml
+++ b/maven-plugin-testing-harness/pom.xml
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
       <artifactId>plexus-utils</artifactId>
-      <version>1.4.2</version>
+      <version>1.4.5</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
diff --git a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/testing/AbstractMojoTestCase.java b/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/testing/AbstractMojoTestCase.java
index 9e616be..7cfa715 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/testing/AbstractMojoTestCase.java
+++ b/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/testing/AbstractMojoTestCase.java
@@ -27,12 +27,12 @@ import org.codehaus.plexus.component.configurator.ComponentConfigurator;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.component.configurator.expression.ExpressionEvaluator;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.configuration.PlexusConfiguration;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.configuration.xml.XmlPlexusConfiguration;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.ReaderFactory;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.ReflectionUtils;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.Xpp3Dom;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.Xpp3DomBuilder;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.Reader;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractMojoTestCase
     {
         File pluginPom = new File( getBasedir(), "pom.xml" );
 
-        Xpp3Dom pluginPomDom = Xpp3DomBuilder.build( new FileReader( pluginPom ) );
+        Xpp3Dom pluginPomDom = Xpp3DomBuilder.build( ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( pluginPom ) );
 
         String artifactId = pluginPomDom.getChild( "artifactId" ).getValue();
 
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractMojoTestCase
     {
         File pluginPom = new File( getBasedir(), "pom.xml" );
 
-        Xpp3Dom pluginPomDom = Xpp3DomBuilder.build( new FileReader( pluginPom ) );
+        Xpp3Dom pluginPomDom = Xpp3DomBuilder.build( ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( pluginPom ) );
 
         String artifactId = pluginPomDom.getChild( "artifactId" ).getValue();
 
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractMojoTestCase
     protected PlexusConfiguration extractPluginConfiguration( String artifactId, File pom )
         throws Exception
     {
-        Reader reader = new FileReader( pom );
+        Reader reader = ReaderFactory.newXmlReader( pom );
 
         Xpp3Dom pomDom = Xpp3DomBuilder.build( reader );