diff --git a/rpi-eeprom-update b/rpi-eeprom-update
index cb25316..431f24f 100755
--- a/rpi-eeprom-update
+++ b/rpi-eeprom-update
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ getBootloaderConfig() {
    local blconfig_nvmem_path=""
 
    if [ -f "${blconfig_alias}" ]; then
-      local blconfig_ofnode_path="/sys/firmware/devicetree/base"$(strings "${blconfig_alias}")""
+      local blconfig_ofnode_path="/sys/firmware/devicetree/base"$(tr -cd [:print:] < "${blconfig_alias}")""
       local blconfig_ofnode_link=$(find -L /sys/bus/nvmem -maxdepth 3 -samefile "${blconfig_ofnode_path}" 2>/dev/null)
 
       if [ -e "${blconfig_ofnode_link}" ]; then
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ applyRecoveryUpdate()
    [ -n "${BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_IMAGE}" ] || [ -n "${VL805_UPDATE_IMAGE}" ] || die "No update images specified"
 
    getBootloaderCurrentVersion
-   BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_VERSION=$(strings "${BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_IMAGE}" | grep BUILD_TIMESTAMP | sed 's/.*=//g')
+   BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_VERSION=$(tr -c [:print:] "\n" < "${BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_IMAGE}" | sed '/^BUILD_TIMESTAMP=/s/.*=//p;d')
    if [ "${BOOTLOADER_CURRENT_VERSION}" -gt "${BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_VERSION}" ]; then
       echo "   WARNING: Installing an older bootloader version."
       echo "            Update the rpi-eeprom package to fetch the latest bootloader images."
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ getBootloaderUpdateVersion() {
    match=".*/pieeprom-[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9].bin"
    latest="$(find "${FIRMWARE_IMAGE_DIR}/" -maxdepth 1 -type f -size "${EEPROM_SIZE}c" -regex "${match}" | sort -r | head -n1)"
    if [ -f "${latest}" ]; then
-      BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_VERSION=$(strings "${latest}" | grep BUILD_TIMESTAMP | sed 's/.*=//g')
+      BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_VERSION=$(tr -c [:print:] "\n" < "${latest}" | sed '/^BUILD_TIMESTAMP=/s/.*=//p;d')
       BOOTLOADER_UPDATE_IMAGE="${latest}"
    fi
 }