diff --git a/includes/common.php b/includes/common.php
index 387cb09ad8..deff57a3de 100644
--- a/includes/common.php
+++ b/includes/common.php
@@ -21,10 +21,43 @@ function format_number_short($number, $sf)
 
 function external_exec($command)
 {
-  global $debug;
+  global $debug , $exec_response;
+
+  $exec_response = array('command' => $command);
 
   if ($debug) { echo($command."\n"); }
-  $output = shell_exec($command);
+
+  $descriptorspec = array(
+    0 => array('pipe', 'r'), // stdin
+    1 => array('pipe', 'w'), // stdout
+    2 => array('pipe', 'w')  // stderr
+  );
+
+  $process = proc_open($command, $descriptorspec, $pipes);
+  stream_set_blocking($pipes[2], 0);
+  if (is_resource($process))
+  {
+    $exec_response['error'] = stream_get_contents($pipes[2]);
+    if ($exec_response['error'])
+    {
+      $output = FALSE;
+    } else {
+      $output = stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
+    }
+    fclose($pipes[0]);
+    fclose($pipes[1]);
+    fclose($pipes[2]);
+    $exec_response['status'] = proc_close($process);
+  } else {
+    fclose($pipes[0]);
+    fclose($pipes[1]);
+    fclose($pipes[2]);
+    proc_terminate($process);
+    $output = FALSE;
+    $exec_error['error'] = '';
+    $exec_response['status'] = -1;
+  }
+
   if ($debug) { echo($output."\n"); }
 
   return $output;
diff --git a/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php b/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php
index 708b114d26..56e1c04020 100644
--- a/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php
+++ b/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ function discover_new_device($hostname)
 
 function discover_device($device, $options = NULL)
 {
-  global $config, $valid;
+  global $config, $valid, $exec_response;
 
   $valid = array(); // Reset $valid array
 
diff --git a/includes/polling/functions.inc.php b/includes/polling/functions.inc.php
index cca6720791..c95a1c5aae 100644
--- a/includes/polling/functions.inc.php
+++ b/includes/polling/functions.inc.php
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ function poll_sensor($device, $class, $unit)
 
 function poll_device($device, $options)
 {
-  global $config, $device, $polled_devices, $db_stats, $memcache;
+  global $config, $device, $polled_devices, $db_stats, $memcache, $exec_response;
 
   $attribs = get_dev_attribs($device['device_id']);