diff -rupN a/cpplint.py b/cpplint.py
--- a/cpplint.py	2025-04-08 01:16:55.000000000 +0000
+++ b/cpplint.py	2026-04-01 01:08:06.670000000 +0000
@@ -7448,7 +7448,7 @@ def ProcessConfigOverrides(filename):
             continue
 
         try:
-            with codecs.open(cfg_file, "r", "utf8", "replace") as file_handle:
+            with open(cfg_file, "r", encoding="utf-8") as file_handle:
                 for line in file_handle:
                     line, _, _ = line.partition("#")  # Remove comments.
                     if not line.strip():
@@ -7550,7 +7550,7 @@ def ProcessFile(filename, vlevel, extra_
         if filename == "-":
             lines = sys.stdin.read().split("\n")
         else:
-            with codecs.open(filename, "r", "utf8", "replace") as target_file:
+            with open(filename, "r", encoding="utf-8") as target_file:
                 lines = target_file.read().split("\n")
 
         # Remove trailing '\r'.