diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index adbb8aa..7be1240 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
     "lcache/lcache": ">=0.4.0"
   },
   "require-dev": {
-    "squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "2.3.4",
+    "squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "2.8.1",
     "wp-coding-standards/wpcs": "0.9.0",
     "pantheon-systems/pantheon-wordpress-upstream-tests": "dev-master"
   },
diff --git a/composer.lock b/composer.lock
index 4bf9774..53cbc45 100644
--- a/composer.lock
+++ b/composer.lock
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         "Read more about it at https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#installing-dependencies",
         "This file is @generated automatically"
     ],
-    "content-hash": "8790774b3c06a4fe59a692a2e661f8b6",
+    "content-hash": "513de4239520b419b91f927298cfe9c4",
     "packages": [
         {
             "name": "lcache/lcache",
@@ -914,23 +914,27 @@
         },
         {
             "name": "squizlabs/php_codesniffer",
-            "version": "2.3.4",
+            "version": "2.8.1",
             "source": {
                 "type": "git",
                 "url": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer.git",
-                "reference": "11a2545c44a5915f883e2e5ec12e14ed345e3ab2"
+                "reference": "d7cf0d894e8aa4c73712ee4a331cc1eaa37cdc7d"
             },
             "dist": {
                 "type": "zip",
-                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/zipball/11a2545c44a5915f883e2e5ec12e14ed345e3ab2",
-                "reference": "11a2545c44a5915f883e2e5ec12e14ed345e3ab2",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/zipball/d7cf0d894e8aa4c73712ee4a331cc1eaa37cdc7d",
+                "reference": "d7cf0d894e8aa4c73712ee4a331cc1eaa37cdc7d",
                 "shasum": ""
             },
             "require": {
+                "ext-simplexml": "*",
                 "ext-tokenizer": "*",
                 "ext-xmlwriter": "*",
                 "php": ">=5.1.2"
             },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.0"
+            },
             "bin": [
                 "scripts/phpcs",
                 "scripts/phpcbf"
@@ -938,7 +942,7 @@
             "type": "library",
             "extra": {
                 "branch-alias": {
-                    "dev-master": "2.0.x-dev"
+                    "dev-master": "2.x-dev"
                 }
             },
             "autoload": {
@@ -984,7 +988,12 @@
                 "phpcs",
                 "standards"
             ],
-            "time": "2015-09-09T00:18:50+00:00"
+            "support": {
+                "issues": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/issues",
+                "source": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer",
+                "wiki": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki"
+            },
+            "time": "2017-03-01T22:17:45+00:00"
         },
         {
             "name": "symfony/browser-kit",
@@ -2076,5 +2085,6 @@
     "prefer-stable": false,
     "prefer-lowest": false,
     "platform": [],
-    "platform-dev": []
+    "platform-dev": [],
+    "plugin-api-version": "2.2.0"
 }