diff --git a/src/diffviewer/ydiff.c b/src/diffviewer/ydiff.c
index ac7b2574f..16b90df26 100644
--- a/src/diffviewer/ydiff.c
+++ b/src/diffviewer/ydiff.c
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 #include "lib/util.h"
 #include "lib/widget.h"
 #include "lib/strutil.h"
+#include "lib/strescape.h"      /* strutils_glob_escape() */
 #ifdef HAVE_CHARSET
 #include "lib/charsets.h"
 #endif
@@ -813,8 +814,15 @@ dff_execute (const char *args, const char *extra, const char *file1, const char
     FBUF *f;
     char *cmd;
     int code;
+    char *file1_esc, *file2_esc;
+
+    /* escape potential $ to avoid shell variable substitutions in popen() */
+    file1_esc = strutils_shell_escape (file1);
+    file2_esc = strutils_shell_escape (file2);
+    cmd = g_strdup_printf ("diff %s %s %s %s %s", args, extra, opt, file1_esc, file2_esc);
+    g_free (file1_esc);
+    g_free (file2_esc);
 
-    cmd = g_strdup_printf ("diff %s %s %s \"%s\" \"%s\"", args, extra, opt, file1, file2);
     if (cmd == NULL)
         return -1;