diff --git a/build.sbt b/build.sbt
index 33915551a853..7b7cefe9e2fe 100644
--- a/build.sbt
+++ b/build.sbt
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ name                     := "joern"
 ThisBuild / organization := "io.joern"
 ThisBuild / scalaVersion := "3.5.2"
 
-val cpgVersion = "1.7.19"
+val cpgVersion = "1.7.21"
 
 lazy val joerncli          = Projects.joerncli
 lazy val querydb           = Projects.querydb
diff --git a/joern-cli/frontends/php2cpg/src/main/scala/io/joern/php2cpg/astcreation/AstCreator.scala b/joern-cli/frontends/php2cpg/src/main/scala/io/joern/php2cpg/astcreation/AstCreator.scala
index 8892100efc75..c5ad8d6a9cb1 100644
--- a/joern-cli/frontends/php2cpg/src/main/scala/io/joern/php2cpg/astcreation/AstCreator.scala
+++ b/joern-cli/frontends/php2cpg/src/main/scala/io/joern/php2cpg/astcreation/AstCreator.scala
@@ -14,10 +14,11 @@ import io.joern.x2cpg.{Ast, AstCreatorBase, AstNodeBuilder, Defines, ValidationM
 import io.shiftleft.codepropertygraph.generated.*
 import io.shiftleft.codepropertygraph.generated.nodes.*
 import io.shiftleft.semanticcpg.language.types.structure.NamespaceTraversal
+import io.shiftleft.utils.IOUtils
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory
 
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets
-import java.nio.file.{Files, Path}
+import java.nio.file.Path
 import scala.collection.mutable
 
 class AstCreator(relativeFileName: String, fileName: String, phpAst: PhpFile, disableFileContent: Boolean)(implicit
@@ -35,7 +36,7 @@ class AstCreator(relativeFileName: String, fileName: String, phpAst: PhpFile, di
 
   override def createAst(): DiffGraphBuilder = {
     if (!disableFileContent) {
-      fileContent = Some(Files.readString(Path.of(fileName)))
+      fileContent = Option(IOUtils.readEntireFile(Path.of(fileName)))
     }
 
     val ast = astForPhpFile(phpAst)