diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 9cdd254e6..f6d903e30 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -40,12 +40,12 @@ alembic==1.3.2
 amqp==1.4.9
 anyjson==0.3.3
 attrs==19.3.0
-awscli==1.16.305
+awscli==1.16.310
 bcrypt==3.1.7
 billiard==3.3.0.23
 bleach==3.1.0
 boto3==1.10.38
-botocore==1.13.41
+botocore==1.13.46
 certifi==2019.11.28
 chardet==3.0.4
 Click==7.0
diff --git a/requirements_for_test.txt b/requirements_for_test.txt
index 7e9bc35a1..f8edc4dc1 100644
--- a/requirements_for_test.txt
+++ b/requirements_for_test.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 -r requirements.txt
 flake8==3.7.9
 moto==1.3.14
-pytest==5.2.4
+pytest==5.3.2
 pytest-env==0.6.2
-pytest-mock==1.11.2
+pytest-mock==2.0.0
 pytest-cov==2.8.1
-pytest-xdist==1.30.0
+pytest-xdist==1.31.0
 freezegun==0.3.12
 requests-mock==1.7.0
 # optional requirements for jsonschema
diff --git a/tests/app/test_cloudfoundry_config.py b/tests/app/test_cloudfoundry_config.py
index ccf238d49..8e1e5b158 100644
--- a/tests/app/test_cloudfoundry_config.py
+++ b/tests/app/test_cloudfoundry_config.py
@@ -26,13 +26,12 @@ def cloudfoundry_config(postgres_config):
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
-def cloudfoundry_environ(monkeypatch, cloudfoundry_config):
-    monkeypatch.setenv('VCAP_SERVICES', json.dumps(cloudfoundry_config))
-    monkeypatch.setenv('VCAP_APPLICATION', '{"space_name": "🚀🌌"}')
+def cloudfoundry_environ(os_environ, cloudfoundry_config):
+    os.environ['VCAP_SERVICES'] = json.dumps(cloudfoundry_config)
+    os.environ['VCAP_APPLICATION'] = '{"space_name": "🚀🌌"}'
 
 
-@pytest.mark.usefixtures('os_environ', 'cloudfoundry_environ')
-def test_extract_cloudfoundry_config_populates_other_vars():
+def test_extract_cloudfoundry_config_populates_other_vars(cloudfoundry_environ):
     extract_cloudfoundry_config()
 
     assert os.environ['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] == 'postgres uri'
@@ -40,8 +39,7 @@ def test_extract_cloudfoundry_config_populates_other_vars():
     assert os.environ['NOTIFY_LOG_PATH'] == '/home/vcap/logs/app.log'
 
 
-@pytest.mark.usefixtures('os_environ', 'cloudfoundry_environ')
-def test_set_config_env_vars_ignores_unknown_configs(cloudfoundry_config):
+def test_set_config_env_vars_ignores_unknown_configs(cloudfoundry_config, cloudfoundry_environ):
     cloudfoundry_config['foo'] = {'credentials': {'foo': 'foo'}}
     cloudfoundry_config['user-provided'].append({
         'name': 'bar', 'credentials': {'bar': 'bar'}
diff --git a/tests/app/test_config.py b/tests/app/test_config.py
index 7cde54486..53c8aacea 100644
--- a/tests/app/test_config.py
+++ b/tests/app/test_config.py
@@ -21,14 +21,17 @@ def reload_config():
 
     yield
 
-    os.environ = old_env
+    os.environ.clear()
+    for k, v in old_env.items():
+        os.environ[k] = v
+
     importlib.reload(config)
 
 
-def test_load_cloudfoundry_config_if_available(monkeypatch, reload_config):
+def test_load_cloudfoundry_config_if_available(reload_config):
     os.environ['ADMIN_BASE_URL'] = 'env'
-    monkeypatch.setenv('VCAP_SERVICES', 'some json blob')
-    monkeypatch.setenv('VCAP_APPLICATION', 'some json blob')
+    os.environ['VCAP_SERVICES'] = 'some json blob'
+    os.environ['VCAP_APPLICATION'] = 'some json blob'
 
     with mock.patch('app.cloudfoundry_config.extract_cloudfoundry_config', side_effect=cf_conf) as cf_config:
         # reload config so that its module level code (ie: all of it) is re-instantiated
@@ -40,10 +43,9 @@ def test_load_cloudfoundry_config_if_available(monkeypatch, reload_config):
     assert config.Config.ADMIN_BASE_URL == 'cf'
 
 
-def test_load_config_if_cloudfoundry_not_available(monkeypatch, reload_config):
+def test_load_config_if_cloudfoundry_not_available(reload_config):
     os.environ['ADMIN_BASE_URL'] = 'env'
-
-    monkeypatch.delenv('VCAP_SERVICES', raising=False)
+    os.environ.pop('VCAP_SERVICES', None)
 
     with mock.patch('app.cloudfoundry_config.extract_cloudfoundry_config') as cf_config:
         # reload config so that its module level code (ie: all of it) is re-instantiated
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 914200001..b0a954ca8 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -130,15 +130,14 @@ def os_environ():
     """
     # for use whenever you expect code to edit environment variables
     old_env = os.environ.copy()
+    os.environ.clear()
 
-    class EnvironDict(dict):
-        def __setitem__(self, key, value):
-            assert type(value) == str
-            super().__setitem__(key, value)
-
-    os.environ = EnvironDict()
     yield
-    os.environ = old_env
+
+    # clear afterwards in case anything extra was added to the environment during the test
+    os.environ.clear()
+    for k, v in old_env.items():
+        os.environ[k] = v
 
 
 def pytest_generate_tests(metafunc):