diff --git a/pkg/proxy/ipvs/proxier_test.go b/pkg/proxy/ipvs/proxier_test.go
index 6a17f081cbe..b672ed649e8 100644
--- a/pkg/proxy/ipvs/proxier_test.go
+++ b/pkg/proxy/ipvs/proxier_test.go
@@ -4660,8 +4660,8 @@ func TestCreateAndLinkKubeChain(t *testing.T) {
 :KUBE-SOURCE-RANGES-FIREWALL - [0:0]
 :KUBE-IPVS-FILTER - [0:0]
 `
-	assert.Equal(t, expectedNATChains, string(fp.natChains.Bytes()))
-	assert.Equal(t, expectedFilterChains, string(fp.filterChains.Bytes()))
+	assert.Equal(t, expectedNATChains, fp.natChains.String())
+	assert.Equal(t, expectedFilterChains, fp.filterChains.String())
 }
 
 // This test ensures that the iptables proxier supports translating Endpoints to
diff --git a/pkg/proxy/util/utils.go b/pkg/proxy/util/utils.go
index 319daf27b4a..44140e9fd97 100644
--- a/pkg/proxy/util/utils.go
+++ b/pkg/proxy/util/utils.go
@@ -483,6 +483,11 @@ func (buf *LineBuffer) Bytes() []byte {
 	return buf.b.Bytes()
 }
 
+// String returns the contents of buf as a string
+func (buf *LineBuffer) String() string {
+	return buf.b.String()
+}
+
 // Lines returns the number of lines in buf. Note that more precisely, this returns the
 // number of times Write() or WriteBytes() was called; it assumes that you never wrote
 // any newlines to the buffer yourself.
diff --git a/pkg/proxy/util/utils_test.go b/pkg/proxy/util/utils_test.go
index 39e0ac573fb..81468bb2522 100644
--- a/pkg/proxy/util/utils_test.go
+++ b/pkg/proxy/util/utils_test.go
@@ -962,7 +962,7 @@ func TestLineBufferWrite(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Run(testCase.name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			testBuffer.Reset()
 			testBuffer.Write(testCase.input...)
-			if want, got := testCase.expected, string(testBuffer.Bytes()); !strings.EqualFold(want, got) {
+			if want, got := testCase.expected, testBuffer.String(); !strings.EqualFold(want, got) {
 				t.Fatalf("write word is %v\n expected: %q, got: %q", testCase.input, want, got)
 			}
 			if testBuffer.Lines() != 1 {
@@ -1005,7 +1005,7 @@ func TestLineBufferWriteBytes(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Run(testCase.name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			testBuffer.Reset()
 			testBuffer.WriteBytes(testCase.bytes)
-			if want, got := testCase.expected, string(testBuffer.Bytes()); !strings.EqualFold(want, got) {
+			if want, got := testCase.expected, testBuffer.String(); !strings.EqualFold(want, got) {
 				t.Fatalf("write bytes is %v\n expected: %s, got: %s", testCase.bytes, want, got)
 			}
 		})
diff --git a/pkg/util/iptables/testing/fake_test.go b/pkg/util/iptables/testing/fake_test.go
index 413610a6d81..a20917c036d 100644
--- a/pkg/util/iptables/testing/fake_test.go
+++ b/pkg/util/iptables/testing/fake_test.go
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ func TestFakeIPTables(t *testing.T) {
 		*mangle
 		COMMIT
 		`, "\n"))
-	if string(buf.Bytes()) != expected {
+	if buf.String() != expected {
 		t.Fatalf("bad initial dump. expected:\n%s\n\ngot:\n%s\n", expected, buf.Bytes())
 	}
 
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ func TestFakeIPTables(t *testing.T) {
 		*mangle
 		COMMIT
 		`, "\n"))
-	if string(buf.Bytes()) != expected {
+	if buf.String() != expected {
 		t.Fatalf("bad sanity-check dump. expected:\n%s\n\ngot:\n%s\n", expected, buf.Bytes())
 	}
 
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ func TestFakeIPTables(t *testing.T) {
 		*mangle
 		COMMIT
 		`, "\n"))
-	if string(buf.Bytes()) != expected {
+	if buf.String() != expected {
 		t.Fatalf("bad post-restore dump. expected:\n%s\n\ngot:\n%s\n", expected, buf.Bytes())
 	}
 
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ func TestFakeIPTables(t *testing.T) {
 		*mangle
 		COMMIT
 		`, "\n"))
-	if string(buf.Bytes()) != expected {
+	if buf.String() != expected {
 		t.Fatalf("bad post-second-restore dump. expected:\n%s\n\ngot:\n%s\n", expected, buf.Bytes())
 	}
 
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ func TestFakeIPTables(t *testing.T) {
 		*mangle
 		COMMIT
 		`, "\n"))
-	if string(buf.Bytes()) != expected {
+	if buf.String() != expected {
 		t.Fatalf("bad post-restore-all dump. expected:\n%s\n\ngot:\n%s\n", expected, buf.Bytes())
 	}
 }