diff --git a/esp/services/ws_workunits/ws_workunitsHelpers.cpp b/esp/services/ws_workunits/ws_workunitsHelpers.cpp
index 6532f42acdc..88e7afe305a 100644
--- a/esp/services/ws_workunits/ws_workunitsHelpers.cpp
+++ b/esp/services/ws_workunits/ws_workunitsHelpers.cpp
@@ -4326,6 +4326,34 @@ void readWUComponentLogOptionsReq(T* logReq, WUComponentLogOptions& options)
     }
 }
 
+// For preventing command injection, sanitize the argument to be passed to the system command.
+// - Quote the entire argument with single quotes to prevent interpretation of shell metacharacters.
+// - Since a single-quoted string can't contain single quotes, replace each single quote in the
+//   argument with the sequence '"'"' . That closes the single quoted string, appends a literal
+//   single quote, and reopens the single quoted string
+
+StringBuffer& sanitizeArg(const char* arg, StringBuffer& sanitized)
+{
+#if defined(__linux__) || defined(__APPLE__)
+    if (!isEmptyString(arg))
+    {
+        size_t len = strlen(arg);
+        sanitized.append('\'');
+        for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
+        {
+            if (arg[i] == '\'')
+                sanitized.append(R"('"'"')");
+            else
+                sanitized.append(arg[i]);
+        }
+        sanitized.append('\'');
+    }
+#else
+    sanitized.append(arg);
+#endif
+    return sanitized;
+}
+
 void CWsWuFileHelper::sendWUComponentLogStreaming(CHttpRequest* request, CHttpResponse* response)
 {
     StringBuffer wuid, fileName;
@@ -4496,7 +4524,11 @@ void CWsWuFileHelper::zipZAPFiles(const char* parentFolder, const char* zapFiles
     else
         zipCommand.setf("cd %s\nzip -r", parentFolder);
     if (!isEmptyString(passwordReq))
-        zipCommand.append(" --password ").append(passwordReq);
+    {
+        StringBuffer sanitizedPassword;
+        sanitizeArg(passwordReq, sanitizedPassword);
+        zipCommand.append(" --password ").append(sanitizedPassword);
+    }
     zipCommand.append(" ").append(zipFileNameWithFullPath).append(" ").append(zapFiles);
     int zipRet = system(zipCommand);
     if (zipRet != 0)