diff --git a/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/AndroidAppBuilder.csproj b/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/AndroidAppBuilder.csproj
index 00b863c5ea59a4..5614e09c8b106d 100644
--- a/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/AndroidAppBuilder.csproj
+++ b/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/AndroidAppBuilder.csproj
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
     <TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
     <EnableDefaultCompileItems>false</EnableDefaultCompileItems>
     <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
+    <AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks>
     <NoWarn>$(NoWarn),CA1050,CA1850</NoWarn>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
diff --git a/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/ApkBuilder.cs b/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/ApkBuilder.cs
index 109583df46120f..30e79a29dfdf8a 100644
--- a/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/ApkBuilder.cs
+++ b/src/tasks/AndroidAppBuilder/ApkBuilder.cs
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 using System.IO;
 using System.IO.Compression;
 using System.Linq;
+using System.Reflection.Metadata;
 using System.Text;
 using System.Text.Json;
 using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
@@ -705,19 +706,32 @@ private string RenderMonodroidCoreClrTemplate(string monodroidContent)
 
     private Dictionary<string, string> ParseRuntimeConfigProperties()
     {
+        // This method reads the binary runtimeconfig.bin file created by RuntimeConfigParserTask.ConvertDictionaryToBlob.
+        // The binary format is: compressed integer count, followed by count pairs of length-prefixed UTF8 strings (key, value).
+        // See src/tasks/MonoTargetsTasks/RuntimeConfigParser/RuntimeConfigParser.cs for the corresponding write logic.
+
         var configProperties = new Dictionary<string, string>();
-        string runtimeConfigPath = Path.Combine(AppDir ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("AppDir is not set"), $"{ProjectName}.runtimeconfig.json");
+        string runtimeConfigPath = Path.Combine(AppDir ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("AppDir is not set"), "runtimeconfig.bin");
 
         try
         {
-            string jsonContent = File.ReadAllText(runtimeConfigPath);
-            using JsonDocument doc = JsonDocument.Parse(jsonContent);
-            JsonElement root = doc.RootElement;
-            if (root.TryGetProperty("runtimeOptions", out JsonElement runtimeOptions) && runtimeOptions.TryGetProperty("configProperties", out JsonElement propertiesJson))
+            byte[] fileBytes = File.ReadAllBytes(runtimeConfigPath);
+            unsafe
             {
-                foreach (JsonProperty property in propertiesJson.EnumerateObject())
+                fixed (byte* ptr = fileBytes)
                 {
-                    configProperties[property.Name] = property.Value.ToString();
+                    var blobReader = new BlobReader(ptr, fileBytes.Length);
+
+                    // Read the compressed integer count
+                    int count = blobReader.ReadCompressedInteger();
+
+                    // Read each key-value pair
+                    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
+                    {
+                        string key = blobReader.ReadSerializedString() ?? string.Empty;
+                        string value = blobReader.ReadSerializedString() ?? string.Empty;
+                        configProperties[key] = value;
+                    }
                 }
             }
         }
diff --git a/src/tasks/TestExclusionListTasks/TestExclusionListTasks.csproj b/src/tasks/TestExclusionListTasks/TestExclusionListTasks.csproj
index ffc0d16e0ea031..87270cd0634dd8 100644
--- a/src/tasks/TestExclusionListTasks/TestExclusionListTasks.csproj
+++ b/src/tasks/TestExclusionListTasks/TestExclusionListTasks.csproj
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
     <EnableDefaultCompileItems>false</EnableDefaultCompileItems>
     <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
     <NoWarn>$(NoWarn),CA1050,CA1850</NoWarn>
+    <AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks>
   </PropertyGroup>
 
   <ItemGroup>