diff --git a/data/meterpreter/ext_server_stdapi.jar b/data/meterpreter/ext_server_stdapi.jar
index bfa2a9d4b5..fa4c781431 100755
Binary files a/data/meterpreter/ext_server_stdapi.jar and b/data/meterpreter/ext_server_stdapi.jar differ
diff --git a/external/source/meterpreter/java/src/stdapi/com/metasploit/meterpreter/stdapi/stdapi_sys_process_execute.java b/external/source/meterpreter/java/src/stdapi/com/metasploit/meterpreter/stdapi/stdapi_sys_process_execute.java
index 8d5de4aa91..e1bc6877cc 100644
--- a/external/source/meterpreter/java/src/stdapi/com/metasploit/meterpreter/stdapi/stdapi_sys_process_execute.java
+++ b/external/source/meterpreter/java/src/stdapi/com/metasploit/meterpreter/stdapi/stdapi_sys_process_execute.java
@@ -16,20 +16,21 @@ public class stdapi_sys_process_execute implements Command {
 	private static int pid = 0;
 
 	public int execute(Meterpreter meterpreter, TLVPacket request, TLVPacket response) throws Exception {
+		StringBuffer cmdbuf = new StringBuffer();
 		String cmd = request.getStringValue(TLVType.TLV_TYPE_PROCESS_PATH);
 		String argsString = request.getStringValue(TLVType.TLV_TYPE_PROCESS_ARGUMENTS, "");
-		StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(argsString);
-		String[] cmdarray = new String[st.countTokens() + 1];
-		cmdarray[0] = cmd;
-		for (int i = 0; i < cmdarray.length - 1; i++) {
-			cmdarray[i + 1] = st.nextToken();
-		}
 		int flags = request.getIntValue(TLVType.TLV_TYPE_PROCESS_FLAGS);
 
+    cmdbuf.append(cmd);
+    if (argsString.length() > 0) {
+      cmdbuf.append(argsString);
+    }
+
+
 		if (cmd.length() == 0)
 			return ERROR_FAILURE;
 
-		Process proc = execute(cmdarray);
+		Process proc = execute(cmdbuf.toString());
 
 		if ((flags & PROCESS_EXECUTE_FLAG_CHANNELIZED) != 0) {
 			ProcessChannel channel = new ProcessChannel(meterpreter, proc);
@@ -47,8 +48,8 @@ public class stdapi_sys_process_execute implements Command {
 		return ERROR_SUCCESS;
 	}
 
-	protected Process execute(String[] cmdarray) throws IOException {
-		Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmdarray);
+	protected Process execute(String cmdstr) throws IOException {
+		Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmdstr);
 		return proc;
 	}
 }
diff --git a/lib/msf/core/post/common.rb b/lib/msf/core/post/common.rb
index a7a7a8c7cd..d7ea9635de 100644
--- a/lib/msf/core/post/common.rb
+++ b/lib/msf/core/post/common.rb
@@ -3,18 +3,64 @@ class Post
 
 module Common
 
-	# Execute given command as hidden and channelize, output of command given as a multiline string.
-	# For certain versions of Meterpreter options can not be included in the cmd var
-	def cmd_exec(cmd, opts=nil, time_out=15)
+	#
+	# Executes +cmd+ on the remote system
+	#
+	# On Windows meterpreter, this will go through CreateProcess as the
+	# "commandLine" parameter. This means it will follow the same rules as
+	# Windows' path disambiguation. For example, if you were to call this method
+	# thusly:
+	#
+	#     cmd_exec("c:\\program files\\sub dir\\program name")
+	#
+	# Windows would look for these executables, in this order, passing the rest
+	# of the line as arguments:
+	#
+	#     c:\program.exe
+	#     c:\program files\sub.exe
+	#     c:\program files\sub dir\program.exe
+	#     c:\program files\sub dir\program name.exe
+	#
+	# On POSIX meterpreter, if +args+ is set or if +cmd+ contains shell
+	# metacharacters, the server will run the whole thing in /bin/sh. Otherwise,
+	# (cmd is a single path and there are no arguments), it will execve the given
+	# executable.
+	#
+	# On Java, it is passed through Runtime.getRuntime().exec(String) and PHP
+	# uses proc_open() both of which have similar semantics to POSIX.
+	#
+	# On shell sessions, this passes +cmd+ directly the session's
+	# +shell_command_token+ method.
+	#
+	# Returns a (possibly multi-line) String.
+	#
+	def cmd_exec(cmd, args=nil, time_out=15)
 		case session.type
 		when /meterpreter/
-			if opts.nil? and cmd =~ /\s*/
-				opts = Shellwords.shellwords(cmd)
-				cmd = opts.shift
-				opts = opts.join(" ")
+			#
+			# The meterpreter API requires arguments to come seperately from the
+			# executable path. This has no effect on Windows where the two are just
+			# blithely concatenated and passed to CreateProcess or its brethren. On
+			# POSIX, this allows the server to execve just the executable when a
+			# shell is not needed. Determining when a shell is not needed is not
+			# always easy, so it assumes anything with arguments needs to go through
+			# /bin/sh.
+			#
+			# This problem was originally solved by using Shellwords.shellwords but
+			# unfortunately, it is retarded. When a backslash occurs inside double
+			# quotes (as is often the case with Windows commands) it inexplicably
+			# removes them. So. Shellwords is out.
+			#
+			# By setting +args+ to an empty string, we can get POSIX to send it
+			# through /bin/sh, solving all the pesky parsing troubles, without
+			# affecting Windows.
+			#
+			if args.nil? and cmd =~ /[^a-zA-Z0-9\/._-]/
+				args = ""
 			end
+
 			session.response_timeout = time_out
-			process = session.sys.process.execute(cmd, opts, {'Hidden' => true, 'Channelized' => true})
+			process = session.sys.process.execute(cmd, args, {'Hidden' => true, 'Channelized' => true})
 			o = ""
 			while (d = process.channel.read)
 				break if d == ""
@@ -23,7 +69,7 @@ module Common
 			process.channel.close
 			process.close
 		when /shell/
-			o = session.shell_command_token("#{cmd} #{opts}", time_out)
+			o = session.shell_command_token("#{cmd} #{args}", time_out)
 			o.chomp! if o
 		end
 		return "" if o.nil?