diff --git a/google/internal/externalaccount/aws.go b/google/internal/externalaccount/aws.go
index 2f078f7..fbcefb4 100644
--- a/google/internal/externalaccount/aws.go
+++ b/google/internal/externalaccount/aws.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 package externalaccount
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"context"
 	"crypto/hmac"
 	"crypto/sha256"
@@ -127,7 +128,7 @@
 	}
 	sort.Strings(headers)
 
-	var fullHeaders strings.Builder
+	var fullHeaders bytes.Buffer
 	for _, header := range headers {
 		headerValue := strings.Join(lowerCaseHeaders[header], ",")
 		fullHeaders.WriteString(header)
diff --git a/google/internal/externalaccount/basecredentials_test.go b/google/internal/externalaccount/basecredentials_test.go
index 78a1137..1ebb227 100644
--- a/google/internal/externalaccount/basecredentials_test.go
+++ b/google/internal/externalaccount/basecredentials_test.go
@@ -13,8 +13,13 @@
 	"time"
 )
 
+const (
+	textBaseCredPath = "testdata/3pi_cred.txt"
+	jsonBaseCredPath = "testdata/3pi_cred.json"
+)
+
 var testBaseCredSource = CredentialSource{
-	File:   "./testdata/3pi_cred.txt",
+	File:   textBaseCredPath,
 	Format: format{Type: fileTypeText},
 }
 
diff --git a/google/internal/externalaccount/filecredsource_test.go b/google/internal/externalaccount/filecredsource_test.go
index ebd2bb7..553830d 100644
--- a/google/internal/externalaccount/filecredsource_test.go
+++ b/google/internal/externalaccount/filecredsource_test.go
@@ -28,14 +28,14 @@
 		{
 			name: "UntypedFileSource",
 			cs: CredentialSource{
-				File: "./testdata/3pi_cred.txt",
+				File: textBaseCredPath,
 			},
 			want: "street123",
 		},
 		{
 			name: "TextFileSource",
 			cs: CredentialSource{
-				File:   "./testdata/3pi_cred.txt",
+				File:   textBaseCredPath,
 				Format: format{Type: fileTypeText},
 			},
 			want: "street123",
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
 		{
 			name: "JSONFileSource",
 			cs: CredentialSource{
-				File:   "./testdata/3pi_cred.json",
+				File:   jsonBaseCredPath,
 				Format: format{Type: fileTypeJSON, SubjectTokenFieldName: "SubjToken"},
 			},
 			want: "321road",