diff --git a/oauth2_http/java/com/google/auth/oauth2/CloudShellCredentials.java b/oauth2_http/java/com/google/auth/oauth2/CloudShellCredentials.java
index 4d22f2e45..24035f0c7 100644
--- a/oauth2_http/java/com/google/auth/oauth2/CloudShellCredentials.java
+++ b/oauth2_http/java/com/google/auth/oauth2/CloudShellCredentials.java
@@ -32,12 +32,13 @@
 package com.google.auth.oauth2;
 
 import com.google.api.client.json.JsonParser;
+import com.google.common.base.Charsets;
 import com.google.common.base.MoreObjects;
 
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
-import java.io.PrintWriter;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.net.Socket;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -57,9 +58,10 @@ public class CloudShellCredentials extends GoogleCredentials {
    * Javascript Protobufers, preceeded by the message length and a
    * new line character. However, the request message has no content,
    * so a token request consists of an empty JsPb, and its 2 character
-   * lenth prefix.
+   * length prefix.
    */
   protected final static String GET_AUTH_TOKEN_REQUEST = "2\n[]";
+  protected final static byte[] GET_AUTH_TOKEN_REQUEST_BYTES = (GET_AUTH_TOKEN_REQUEST + "\n").getBytes(Charsets.UTF_8);
 
   private final int authPort;
 
@@ -96,10 +98,9 @@ public AccessToken refreshAccessToken() throws IOException {
     Socket socket = new Socket("localhost", this.getAuthPort());
     socket.setSoTimeout(READ_TIMEOUT_MS);
     AccessToken token;
-    try {    
-      PrintWriter out =
-        new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(), true);
-      out.println(GET_AUTH_TOKEN_REQUEST);
+    try {
+      OutputStream os = socket.getOutputStream();
+      os.write(GET_AUTH_TOKEN_REQUEST_BYTES);
     
       BufferedReader input =
           new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));