diff --git a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
index 8734d0a2860..5e55bb36b74 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
@@ -239,10 +239,13 @@ function append_or_replace_prefixed_line {
   local -r file="${1:-}"
   local -r prefix="${2:-}"
   local -r suffix="${3:-}"
+  local -r dirname="$(dirname ${file})"
+  local -r tmpfile="$(mktemp -t filtered.XXXX --tmpdir=${dirname})"
 
   touch "${file}"
-  awk "substr(\$0,0,length(\"${prefix}\")) != \"${prefix}\" { print }" "${file}" > "${file}.filtered"  && mv "${file}.filtered" "${file}"
-  echo "${prefix}${suffix}" >> "${file}"
+  awk "substr(\$0,0,length(\"${prefix}\")) != \"${prefix}\" { print }" "${file}" > "${tmpfile}"
+  echo "${prefix}${suffix}" >> "${tmpfile}"
+  mv "${tmpfile}" "${file}"
 }
 
 function create-node-pki {