diff --git a/mkbootfs/mkbootfs.cpp b/mkbootfs/mkbootfs.cpp
index 65cf497..a45c6a2 100644
--- a/mkbootfs/mkbootfs.cpp
+++ b/mkbootfs/mkbootfs.cpp
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@
 #include <private/android_filesystem_config.h>
 #include <private/fs_config.h>
 
+#include <android-base/file.h>
+#include <string>
+
 /* NOTES
 **
 ** - see https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt
@@ -212,20 +215,12 @@
     if(lstat(in, &s)) err(1, "could not stat '%s'", in);
 
     if(S_ISREG(s.st_mode)){
-        int fd = open(in, O_RDONLY);
-        if(fd < 0) err(1, "cannot open '%s' for read", in);
-
-        char* tmp = (char*) malloc(s.st_size);
-        if(tmp == 0) errx(1, "cannot allocate %zd bytes", s.st_size);
-
-        if(read(fd, tmp, s.st_size) != s.st_size) {
-            err(1, "cannot read %zd bytes", s.st_size);
+        std::string content;
+        if (!android::base::ReadFileToString(in, &content)) {
+            err(1, "cannot read '%s'", in);
         }
 
-        _eject(&s, out, olen, tmp, s.st_size);
-
-        free(tmp);
-        close(fd);
+        _eject(&s, out, olen, content.data(), content.size());
     } else if(S_ISDIR(s.st_mode)) {
         _eject(&s, out, olen, 0, 0);
         _archive_dir(in, out, ilen, olen);