diff --git a/includes/common.php b/includes/common.php
index deff57a3de..387cb09ad8 100644
--- a/includes/common.php
+++ b/includes/common.php
@@ -21,43 +21,10 @@ function format_number_short($number, $sf)
 
 function external_exec($command)
 {
-  global $debug , $exec_response;
-
-  $exec_response = array('command' => $command);
+  global $debug;
 
   if ($debug) { echo($command."\n"); }
-
-  $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;
-  }
-
+  $output = shell_exec($command);
   if ($debug) { echo($output."\n"); }
 
   return $output;
diff --git a/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php b/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php
index 56e1c04020..708b114d26 100644
--- a/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php
+++ b/includes/discovery/functions.inc.php
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ function discover_new_device($hostname)
 
 function discover_device($device, $options = NULL)
 {
-  global $config, $valid, $exec_response;
+  global $config, $valid;
 
   $valid = array(); // Reset $valid array
 
diff --git a/includes/polling/functions.inc.php b/includes/polling/functions.inc.php
index c95a1c5aae..cca6720791 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, $exec_response;
+  global $config, $device, $polled_devices, $db_stats, $memcache;
 
   $attribs = get_dev_attribs($device['device_id']);