diff --git a/etc/periodic/daily/470.status-named b/etc/periodic/daily/470.status-named
index e8e1365cf0e9..30507474b490 100755
--- a/etc/periodic/daily/470.status-named
+++ b/etc/periodic/daily/470.status-named
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ fi
 
 catmsgs() {
 	find /var/log -name 'messages.*' -mtime -2 |
-	    sort -t. -r -n +1 -2 |
+	    sort -t. -r -n -k 2,2 |
 	    xargs zcat -f
 	[ -f /var/log/messages ] && cat /var/log/messages
 }
diff --git a/etc/periodic/monthly/200.accounting b/etc/periodic/monthly/200.accounting
index 10a65d10ed5b..0be8c326abf5 100755
--- a/etc/periodic/monthly/200.accounting
+++ b/etc/periodic/monthly/200.accounting
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ case "$monthly_accounting_enable" in
 	    echo ""
 	    echo "Doing login accounting:"
 
-	    rc=$(ac -p -w $W.0 | sort -nr +1 | tee /dev/stderr | wc -l)
+	    rc=$(ac -p -w $W.0 | sort -nr -k 2 | tee /dev/stderr | wc -l)
 	    [ $rc -gt 0 ] && rc=1
 	fi
 	[ $remove = YES ] && rm -f $W.0;;
diff --git a/etc/periodic/security/100.chksetuid b/etc/periodic/security/100.chksetuid
index 9f979191e95d..e3f4df57311e 100755
--- a/etc/periodic/security/100.chksetuid
+++ b/etc/periodic/security/100.chksetuid
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ case "$daily_status_security_chksetuid_enable" in
 	        find $mount -xdev -type f \
 			\( -perm -u+x -or -perm -g+x -or -perm -o+x \) \
 			\( -perm -u+s -or -perm -g+s \) -print0
-	    done | xargs -0 -n 20 ls -liTd | sed 's/^ *//' | sort +10 > ${TMP}
+	    done | xargs -0 -n 20 ls -liTd | sed 's/^ *//' | sort -k 11 > ${TMP}
 	fi
 
 	if [ ! -f ${LOG}/setuid.today ]; then
diff --git a/etc/periodic/security/800.loginfail b/etc/periodic/security/800.loginfail
index 6ebe228056e1..c0ecaeb85825 100755
--- a/etc/periodic/security/800.loginfail
+++ b/etc/periodic/security/800.loginfail
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ yesterday=`date -v-1d "+%b %e "`
 
 catmsgs() {
 	find ${LOG} -name 'auth.log.*' -mtime -2 |
-	    sort -t. -r -n +1 -2 |
+	    sort -t. -r -n -k 2,2 |
 	    xargs zcat -f
 	[ -f ${LOG}/auth.log ] && cat $LOG/auth.log
 }
diff --git a/etc/periodic/security/900.tcpwrap b/etc/periodic/security/900.tcpwrap
index 0dc61dc0923f..cad9fae2afad 100755
--- a/etc/periodic/security/900.tcpwrap
+++ b/etc/periodic/security/900.tcpwrap
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ yesterday=`date -v-1d "+%b %e "`
 
 catmsgs() {
 	find ${LOG} -name 'messages.*' -mtime -2 |
-	    sort -t. -r -n +1 -2 |
+	    sort -t. -r -n -k 2,2 |
 	    xargs zcat -f
 	[ -f ${LOG}/messages ] && cat $LOG/messages
 }