diff --git a/dev-support/determine-flaky-tests-hadoop.py b/dev-support/determine-flaky-tests-hadoop.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 6f16ba5392f..ce152bacaef
--- a/dev-support/determine-flaky-tests-hadoop.py
+++ b/dev-support/determine-flaky-tests-hadoop.py
@@ -92,10 +92,10 @@ def load_url_data(url):
     ourl = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
     codec = ourl.info().get_param('charset')
     content = ourl.read().decode(codec)
-    data = simplejson.loads(content)
+    data = simplejson.loads(content, strict=False)
   else:
     ourl = urllib2.urlopen(url)
-    data = simplejson.load(ourl)
+    data = simplejson.load(ourl, strict=False)
   return data
  
 """ List all builds of the target project. """
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 3f6adcedd61..05346f22f70 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -482,6 +482,9 @@ Release 2.7.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-11547. hadoop-common native compilation fails on Windows due to
     missing support for __attribute__ declaration. (cnauroth)
 
+    HADOOP-11549. flaky test detection tool failed to handle special control
+    characters in test result. (Yongjun Zhang via aajisaka)
+
 Release 2.6.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES