diff --git a/build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-common-agent-config.rb b/build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-common-agent-config.rb
index 2cf89f0740..b7bde92217 100644
--- a/build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-common-agent-config.rb
+++ b/build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-common-agent-config.rb
@@ -121,6 +121,11 @@ def get_command_windows(env_variable_name, env_variable_value)
   return "#{env_variable_name}=#{env_variable_value}\n"
 end
 
+def get_command_linux(env_variable_name, env_variable_value)
+  escaped_value = env_variable_value.to_s.gsub("'") { "'\\''" }
+  return "export #{env_variable_name}='#{escaped_value}'\n"
+end
+
 if is_windows?
   # Write the settings to file, so that they can be set as environment variables
   file = File.open("setcommonagentenv.txt", "w")
@@ -157,16 +162,16 @@ def get_command_windows(env_variable_name, env_variable_value)
   file = File.open("common_agent_config_env_var", "w")
   if !file.nil?
     if @disableTelemetry
-      file.write("export DISABLE_TELEMETRY=#{@disableTelemetry}\n")
+      file.write(get_command_linux("DISABLE_TELEMETRY", @disableTelemetry))
     end
     if @enableHighLogScaleMode
-      file.write("export ENABLE_HIGH_LOG_SCALE_MODE=#{@enableHighLogScaleMode}\n")
+      file.write(get_command_linux("ENABLE_HIGH_LOG_SCALE_MODE", @enableHighLogScaleMode))
     end
     if @enableCustomMetrics
-      file.write("export ENABLE_CUSTOM_METRICS=#{@enableCustomMetrics}\n")
+      file.write(get_command_linux("ENABLE_CUSTOM_METRICS", @enableCustomMetrics))
     end
-    file.write("export AZMON_COLLECT_AMA_LOGS_PROCESS_METRICS=#{@amaLogsCollectProcessMetricsEnabled}\n")
-    file.write("export AZMON_KUBERNETES_METADATA_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS=#{@logEnableKubernetesMetadataCacheTTLSeconds}\n")
+    file.write(get_command_linux("AZMON_COLLECT_AMA_LOGS_PROCESS_METRICS", @amaLogsCollectProcessMetricsEnabled))
+    file.write(get_command_linux("AZMON_KUBERNETES_METADATA_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS", @logEnableKubernetesMetadataCacheTTLSeconds))
     # Close file after writing all environment variables
     file.close
   else
diff --git a/build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-config-value-handling_test.rb b/build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-config-value-handling_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c732bc3303
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-config-value-handling_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
+require "minitest/autorun"
+require "fileutils"
+require "tmpdir"
+require "rbconfig"
+require "open3"
+
+# kubernetes/linux/main.sh sources the shell files these parsers generate, so an unquoted value
+# is subject to shell processing instead of arriving as configured. The values are rendered as
+# single-quoted literals; these tests pin that a value containing shell syntax is left intact
+# and that ordinary values still arrive unchanged.
+class TomlParserConfigValueHandlingTest < Minitest::Test
+  REPO = File.expand_path("../../../..", __dir__)
+  SHELL_SYNTAX = "true$(touch EVALUATED)"
+
+  COMMON = {
+    source: "build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser-common-agent-config.rb",
+    mount: "/etc/config/settings/agent-settings",
+    output: "common_agent_config_env_var",
+  }.freeze
+
+  METRIC = {
+    source: "build/linux/installer/scripts/tomlparser-metric-collection-config.rb",
+    mount: "/etc/config/settings/metric_collection_settings",
+    output: "config_metric_collection_env_var",
+  }.freeze
+
+  LOG = {
+    source: "build/common/installer/scripts/tomlparser.rb",
+    mount: "/etc/config/settings/log-data-collection-settings",
+    output: "config_env_var",
+  }.freeze
+
+  # Generates the shell file, then sources it the way main.sh does. Returns whether the shell
+  # processed the value and what bash ended up with. The parser's hardcoded image paths are
+  # repointed at the fixture, so this needs no agent image.
+  def source_generated(parser, toml, vars = [])
+    Dir.mktmpdir do |dir|
+      settings = File.join(dir, "settings")
+      File.write(settings, toml)
+
+      source = File.read(File.join(REPO, parser[:source]))
+                   .sub(parser[:mount].inspect, settings.inspect)
+                   .sub('require_relative "/etc/fluent/plugin/constants"',
+                        "require_relative #{File.join(REPO, "source/plugins/ruby/constants.rb").inspect}")
+      File.write(File.join(dir, "parser.rb"), source)
+      FileUtils.cp(File.join(REPO, "build/common/installer/scripts/ConfigParseErrorLogger.rb"), dir)
+
+      Open3.capture3({ "AZMON_AGENT_CFG_SCHEMA_VERSION" => "v1" },
+                     RbConfig.ruby, File.join(dir, "parser.rb"), chdir: dir)
+
+      script = ". ./#{parser[:output]}; " + vars.map { |v| "printf '%s\\n' \"$#{v}\"" }.join("; ")
+      out, = Open3.capture3("bash", "-c", script, chdir: dir)
+      return { evaluated: File.exist?(File.join(dir, "EVALUATED")), values: out.split("\n", -1) }
+    end
+  end
+
+  def test_common_agent_shell_syntax_is_not_processed
+    result = source_generated(COMMON, <<~TOML, %w[DISABLE_TELEMETRY ENABLE_HIGH_LOG_SCALE_MODE ENABLE_CUSTOM_METRICS])
+      [agent_settings.telemetry_config]
+      disable_telemetry = "#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"
+
+      [agent_settings.high_log_scale]
+      enabled = "#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"
+
+      [agent_settings.custom_metrics]
+      enabled = "#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"
+    TOML
+
+    refute result[:evaluated], "sourcing the generated file let the shell process the config map value"
+    # The literal text survives, which is what keeps this from changing behaviour. What matters
+    # is that it is inert and never equals the "true" the consumers look for.
+    result[:values].first(3).each { |v| refute_equal "true", v.to_s.downcase }
+  end
+
+  def test_metric_collection_shell_syntax_is_not_processed
+    result = source_generated(METRIC, <<~TOML, %w[AZMON_PV_COLLECT_KUBE_SYSTEM_METRICS])
+      [metric_collection_settings.collect_kube_system_pv_metrics]
+      enabled = "#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"
+    TOML
+
+    refute result[:evaluated], "sourcing the generated file let the shell process the config map value"
+    refute_equal "true", result[:values].first.to_s.downcase
+  end
+
+  def test_log_collection_shell_syntax_is_not_processed
+    result = source_generated(LOG, <<~TOML, %w[AZMON_COLLECT_STDOUT_LOGS])
+      [log_collection_settings.stdout]
+      enabled = "#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"
+      exclude_namespaces = ["kube-system","#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"]
+      [log_collection_settings.schema]
+      containerlog_schema_version = "#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"
+      [log_collection_settings.enrich_container_logs]
+      enabled = "#{SHELL_SYNTAX}"
+    TOML
+
+    refute result[:evaluated], "sourcing the generated file let the shell process the config map value"
+  end
+
+  # A value containing a single quote is the case naive escaping gets wrong.
+  def test_quote_in_value_cannot_break_out
+    result = source_generated(LOG, <<~TOML, %w[AZMON_STDOUT_EXCLUDED_NAMESPACES])
+      [log_collection_settings.stdout]
+      enabled = true
+      exclude_namespaces = ["it's$(touch EVALUATED)"]
+    TOML
+
+    refute result[:evaluated], "a single quote in the value broke out of the quoted literal"
+    assert_equal "it's$(touch EVALUATED)", result[:values].first
+  end
+
+  def test_ordinary_values_are_unchanged
+    result = source_generated(COMMON, <<~TOML, %w[DISABLE_TELEMETRY ENABLE_HIGH_LOG_SCALE_MODE])
+      [agent_settings.telemetry_config]
+      disable_telemetry = true
+
+      [agent_settings.high_log_scale]
+      enabled = "TRUE"
+    TOML
+
+    refute result[:evaluated]
+    assert_equal "true", result[:values][0]
+    assert_equal "TRUE", result[:values][1], "the value must reach bash exactly as configured"
+  end
+
+  def test_ordinary_log_collection_values_are_unchanged
+    result = source_generated(LOG, <<~TOML, %w[AZMON_COLLECT_STDOUT_LOGS AZMON_STDOUT_EXCLUDED_NAMESPACES AZMON_CONTAINER_LOG_SCHEMA_VERSION])
+      [log_collection_settings.stdout]
+      enabled = true
+      exclude_namespaces = ["kube-system","gatekeeper-system"]
+      [log_collection_settings.schema]
+      containerlog_schema_version = "v2"
+    TOML
+
+    assert_equal "true", result[:values][0]
+    assert_equal "kube-system,gatekeeper-system", result[:values][1]
+    assert_equal "v2", result[:values][2]
+  end
+end
diff --git a/build/linux/installer/scripts/tomlparser-metric-collection-config.rb b/build/linux/installer/scripts/tomlparser-metric-collection-config.rb
index 3001fdbafc..9c15032b68 100644
--- a/build/linux/installer/scripts/tomlparser-metric-collection-config.rb
+++ b/build/linux/installer/scripts/tomlparser-metric-collection-config.rb
@@ -57,11 +57,16 @@ def populateSettingValuesFromConfigMap(parsedConfig)
   end
 end
 
+def get_command_linux(env_variable_name, env_variable_value)
+  escaped_value = env_variable_value.to_s.gsub("'") { "'\\''" }
+  return "export #{env_variable_name}='#{escaped_value}'\n"
+end
+
 # Write the settings to file, so that they can be set as environment variables
 file = File.open("config_metric_collection_env_var", "w")
 
 if !file.nil?
-  file.write("export AZMON_PV_COLLECT_KUBE_SYSTEM_METRICS=#{@collectPVKubeSystemMetrics}\n")
+  file.write(get_command_linux("AZMON_PV_COLLECT_KUBE_SYSTEM_METRICS", @collectPVKubeSystemMetrics))
   # Close file after writing all metric collection setting environment variables
   file.close
   puts "****************End Metric Collection Settings Processing********************"
diff --git a/kubernetes/linux/main.sh b/kubernetes/linux/main.sh
index 55625148b8..6062b3ccc5 100644
--- a/kubernetes/linux/main.sh
+++ b/kubernetes/linux/main.sh
@@ -205,7 +205,9 @@ gracefulShutdown() {
 # usage: setGlobalEnvVar ENABLE_SIDECAR_SCRAPING true
 setGlobalEnvVar() {
       export "$1"="$2"
-      echo "export \"$1\"=\"$2\"" >> /opt/env_vars
+      # /opt/env_vars is sourced by later shells, so the value is written as a single-quoted
+      # literal. Double quotes would leave it open to shell processing on the way back in.
+      printf "export %s='%s'\n" "$1" "$(printf '%s' "$2" | sed "s/'/'\\\\''/g")" >> /opt/env_vars
 }
 touch /opt/env_vars
 touch /opt/dcr_env_var