diff --git a/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/main/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifier.java b/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/main/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifier.java
index 53f94fb69b..941b154fe1 100644
--- a/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/main/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifier.java
+++ b/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/main/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifier.java
@@ -15,15 +15,15 @@
 import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveEntry;
 import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveInputStream;
 import org.apache.commons.compress.compressors.gzip.GzipCompressorInputStream;
-import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 
 import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
 
 import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
-import java.io.File;
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.security.InvalidKeyException;
 import java.security.KeyStore;
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ public class DynamicConfigVerifier {
      * @throws MissingOptionException
      */
     public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException, InvalidKeyException, NoSuchAlgorithmException,
-            SignatureException, FileNotFoundException, KeyStoreException, IOException {
+    SignatureException, FileNotFoundException, KeyStoreException, IOException {
 
         Options options = prepareOptions();
         CommandLine cli = new DefaultParser().parse(options, args);
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException, InvalidKeyExceptio
         }
         else {
             log.error("Could not verify " + modelTarFile + " with details provided");
+            System.exit(-1);
         }
     }
 
@@ -111,12 +112,24 @@ public static boolean verify(String fileContent, String signature, PublicKey pub
      */
     public static String readTarContents(String archiveFile) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
         StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
-        TarArchiveInputStream archive = new TarArchiveInputStream(
-                new GzipCompressorInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(archiveFile))));
-        TarArchiveEntry entry;
-        while ((entry = archive.getNextTarEntry()) != null) {
-            sb.append(FileUtils.readFileToString(new File(entry.getName()), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+        BufferedReader br = null;
+        TarArchiveInputStream archiveInputStream = null;
+        try {
+            archiveInputStream = new TarArchiveInputStream(
+                    new GzipCompressorInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(archiveFile))));
+            TarArchiveEntry entry;
+            while ((entry = archiveInputStream.getNextTarEntry()) != null) {
+                br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(archiveInputStream));
+                String line;
+                while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
+                    sb.append(line);
+                }
+            }
+        } finally {
+            archiveInputStream.close();
+            br.close();
         }
+
         return sb.toString();
     }
 
diff --git a/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/test/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifiesTest.java b/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/test/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifiesTest.java
index a46645629c..7db5bf12c0 100644
--- a/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/test/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifiesTest.java
+++ b/elide-contrib/elide-dynamic-config-helpers/src/test/java/com/yahoo/elide/contrib/dynamicconfighelpers/verify/DynamicConfigVerifiesTest.java
@@ -12,9 +12,21 @@
 
 import org.apache.commons.cli.MissingArgumentException;
 import org.apache.commons.cli.MissingOptionException;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveEntry;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveOutputStream;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.compressors.gzip.GzipCompressorOutputStream;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.utils.IOUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterAll;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeAll;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
+import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.security.KeyPair;
 import java.security.KeyPairGenerator;
@@ -27,16 +39,25 @@ public class DynamicConfigVerifiesTest {
 
     private static KeyPair kp;
     private static String signature;
+    private static String tarContent = null;
+    private static final String TAR_FILE_PATH = "src/test/resources/test.tar.gz";
 
     @BeforeAll
     public static void setUp() throws Exception {
+        createTarGZ();
         kp = generateKeyPair();
-        signature = sign("testing-signature", kp.getPrivate());
+        tarContent = DynamicConfigVerifier.readTarContents(TAR_FILE_PATH);
+        signature = sign(tarContent, kp.getPrivate());
+    }
+
+    @AfterAll
+    public static void after() {
+        FileUtils.deleteQuietly(FileUtils.getFile(TAR_FILE_PATH));
     }
 
     @Test
     public void testValidSignature() throws Exception {
-        assertTrue(DynamicConfigVerifier.verify("testing-signature", signature, kp.getPublic()));
+        assertTrue(DynamicConfigVerifier.verify(tarContent, signature, kp.getPublic()));
     }
 
     @Test
@@ -86,4 +107,37 @@ private static String sign(String data, PrivateKey privateKey) throws Exception
         byte[] signature = privateSignature.sign();
         return Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(signature);
     }
+
+    private static void createTarGZ() throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
+        TarArchiveOutputStream tarOutputStream = null;
+        try {
+            String modelPath  = "src/test/resources/models_missing/";
+            tarOutputStream = new TarArchiveOutputStream(new GzipCompressorOutputStream(
+                    new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(new File(TAR_FILE_PATH)))));
+            addFileToTarGz(tarOutputStream, modelPath, "");
+        } finally {
+            tarOutputStream.finish();
+            tarOutputStream.close();
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static void addFileToTarGz(TarArchiveOutputStream tOut, String path, String base) throws IOException {
+        File f = new File(path);
+        String entryName = base + f.getName();
+        TarArchiveEntry tarEntry = new TarArchiveEntry(f, entryName);
+        tOut.putArchiveEntry(tarEntry);
+
+        if (f.isFile()) {
+            IOUtils.copy(new FileInputStream(f), tOut);
+            tOut.closeArchiveEntry();
+        } else {
+            tOut.closeArchiveEntry();
+            File[] children = f.listFiles();
+            if (children != null) {
+                for (File child : children) {
+                    addFileToTarGz(tOut, child.getAbsolutePath(), entryName + "/");
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }