diff --git a/src/bin/pg_basebackup/t/010_pg_basebackup.pl b/src/bin/pg_basebackup/t/010_pg_basebackup.pl
index 3e1c3863c4..33869fecc9 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_basebackup/t/010_pg_basebackup.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_basebackup/t/010_pg_basebackup.pl
@@ -499,7 +499,7 @@ my $block_size = $node->safe_psql('postgres', 'SHOW block_size;');
 system_or_bail 'pg_ctl', '-D', $pgdata, 'stop';
 open $file, '+<', "$pgdata/$file_corrupt1";
 seek($file, $pageheader_size, 0);
-syswrite($file, '\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0');
+syswrite($file, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0");
 close $file;
 system_or_bail 'pg_ctl', '-D', $pgdata, 'start';
 
@@ -518,7 +518,7 @@ for my $i (1 .. 5)
 {
 	my $offset = $pageheader_size + $i * $block_size;
 	seek($file, $offset, 0);
-	syswrite($file, '\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0');
+	syswrite($file, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0");
 }
 close $file;
 system_or_bail 'pg_ctl', '-D', $pgdata, 'start';
@@ -534,8 +534,8 @@ rmtree("$tempdir/backup_corrupt2");
 # induce corruption in a second file
 system_or_bail 'pg_ctl', '-D', $pgdata, 'stop';
 open $file, '+<', "$pgdata/$file_corrupt2";
-seek($file, 4000, 0);
-syswrite($file, '\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0');
+seek($file, $pageheader_size, 0);
+syswrite($file, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0");
 close $file;
 system_or_bail 'pg_ctl', '-D', $pgdata, 'start';
 
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_verify_checksums/t/002_actions.pl b/src/bin/pg_verify_checksums/t/002_actions.pl
index 5250b5a728..74ad5ad723 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_verify_checksums/t/002_actions.pl
+++ b/src/bin/pg_verify_checksums/t/002_actions.pl
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ sub check_relation_corruption
 	# Time to create some corruption
 	open my $file, '+<', "$pgdata/$file_corrupted";
 	seek($file, $pageheader_size, 0);
-	syswrite($file, '\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0');
+	syswrite($file, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0");
 	close $file;
 
 	# Checksum checks on single relfilenode fail