diff --git a/src/utils/utils.php b/src/utils/utils.php
--- a/src/utils/utils.php
+++ b/src/utils/utils.php
@@ -1057,11 +1057,13 @@
  *                    failed to decode.
  */
 function phutil_json_decode($string, $default = array()) {
-  $result = @json_decode($string, true);
-  if (!is_array($result)) {
+  $parser = new PhutilJSONParser();
+
+  try {
+    return $parser->parse($string);
+  } catch (PhutilJSONParserException $ex) {
     return $default;
   }
-  return $result;
 }