diff --git a/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c b/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
index cff60713b..dade24f6c 100644
--- a/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
+++ b/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
@@ -48,8 +48,7 @@ read_words (const char *filename, char ***ret_w)
 	err (1, "cannot open %s", filename);
     alloc = n = 0;
     while (fgets (buf, sizeof(buf), f) != NULL) {
-	if (buf[strlen (buf) - 1] == '\n')
-	    buf[strlen (buf) - 1] = '\0';
+	buf[strcspn(buf, "\r\n")] = '\0';
 	if (n >= alloc) {
 	    alloc += 16;
 	    w = erealloc (w, alloc * sizeof(char **));
diff --git a/kuser/generate-requests.c b/kuser/generate-requests.c
index b18dfda8b..3691a6431 100644
--- a/kuser/generate-requests.c
+++ b/kuser/generate-requests.c
@@ -58,8 +58,7 @@ read_words (const char *filename, char ***ret_w)
 	err (1, "cannot open %s", filename);
     alloc = n = 0;
     while (fgets (buf, sizeof(buf), f) != NULL) {
-	if (buf[strlen (buf) - 1] == '\n')
-	    buf[strlen (buf) - 1] = '\0';
+	buf[strcspn(buf, "\r\n")] = '\0';
 	if (n >= alloc) {
 	    alloc += 16;
 	    w = erealloc (w, alloc * sizeof(char **));
diff --git a/lib/kadm5/ipropd_master.c b/lib/kadm5/ipropd_master.c
index ad3a8f300..22cc3b9e9 100644
--- a/lib/kadm5/ipropd_master.c
+++ b/lib/kadm5/ipropd_master.c
@@ -127,8 +127,7 @@ check_acl (krb5_context context, const char *name)
     if (fp == NULL)
 	return 1;
     while (fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), fp) != NULL) {
-	if (buf[strlen(buf) - 1 ] == '\n')
-	    buf[strlen(buf) - 1 ] = '\0';
+	buf[strcspn(buf, "\r\n")] = '\0';
 	if (strcmp (buf, name) == 0) {
 	    ret = 0;
 	    break;