diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2611.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2611.section.md
index 16d09ce84c66..50cec08d2e68 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2611.section.md
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2611.section.md
@@ -81,6 +81,8 @@
 
 - When Avahi's mDNS resolver is enabled (`services.avahi.nssmdns4` or `services.avahi.nssmdns6`), only the minimal mDNS resolver is enabled by default to avoid adding a 5 second delay to every failed reverse hostname lookup (e.g., delaying ping by 5 seconds). The "full" mDNS resolver now remains disabled unless `services.avahi.nssmdnsFull` is also enabled. Users who have customized [`/etc/mdns.allow`](https://github.com/avahi/nss-mdns/tree/master#etcmdnsallow) to allow mDNS domains not ending `.local` must enable `services.avahi.nssmdnsFull` to continue to resolve such domains.
 
+- String values passed to `services.phpfpm.settings`, `services.phpfpm.pools.<name>.phpEnv`, and `services.phpfpm.pools.<name>.settings` are now properly quoted and escaped, except for the `${}` syntax that is left as-is. If you are manually escaping these values, please adjust accordingly.
+
 - `systemd.user.extraConfig` has been removed in favor of the structured [](#opt-systemd.user.settings.Manager) option. Use `systemd.user.settings.Manager` to set any `systemd-user.conf(5)` option directly. For example, replace `systemd.user.extraConfig = "DefaultTimeoutStartSec=60";` with `systemd.user.settings.Manager.DefaultTimeoutStartSec = 60;`.
 
 - `matrix-appservice-discord` was removed from nixpkgs along with its NixOS module (`services.matrix-appservice-discord`) as it is no longer actively maintained upstream. Use the actively-maintained puppeting bridge [`mautrix-discord`](#opt-services.mautrix-discord.enable) instead.
diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/phpfpm/default.nix b/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/phpfpm/default.nix
index 34845589fabe..43d394ad39f4 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/phpfpm/default.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/phpfpm/default.nix
@@ -18,6 +18,15 @@ let
       "yes"
     else if false == value then
       "no"
+    else if isString value then
+      # Escape according to https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.parse-ini-file.php
+      # Not escaping `$` since users might want to use that to interpolate environment variables.
+      # Additionally, php-fpm applies post-processing to env values that start with `$` and replaces
+      # them with the respective env variable, with no way to escape: https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/631c366f9f58c8ba4078a48d1f56187cfbf8e549/sapi/fpm/fpm/fpm_env.c#L171-L180
+      # In all platforms except for Windows, PHP_EOL is the line feed `\n` character,
+      # which we use here as an escape value since php-fpm parses the config line-by-line.
+      # See https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/516530#issuecomment-4878738511 for more information.
+      ''"${replaceString "\n" ''" PHP_EOL "'' (escape [ "\"" "\\" ] value)}"''
     else
       toString value;
 
diff --git a/nixos/tests/php/fpm.nix b/nixos/tests/php/fpm.nix
index cb128df26ebe..16377ec19c24 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/php/fpm.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/php/fpm.nix
@@ -44,6 +44,13 @@
           "pm.min_spare_servers" = 1;
           "pm.start_servers" = 2;
         };
+        phpEnv = {
+          # check that keywords and special characters are escaped properly
+          keyword = "false";
+          characters = "^ = \\";
+          quoted = "\"'";
+          newline = "hello\nworld";
+        };
       };
     };
   testScript =
@@ -56,6 +63,15 @@
       response = machine.wait_until_succeeds("curl -fvvv -s http://127.0.0.1:80/")
       t.assertIn("PHP Version ${php.version}", response, "PHP version not detected")
 
+      expected_env = {
+        "keyword": "false",
+        "characters": "^ = \\",
+        "quoted": "&quot;&#039;",
+        "newline": "hello\nworld",
+      }
+      for env, value in expected_env.items():
+        assert f'<tr><td class="e">{env} </td><td class="v">{value} </td></tr>' in response, f"phpEnv.{env} not detected"
+
       # Check so we have database and some other extensions loaded
       for ext in ["json", "opcache", "pdo_mysql", "pdo_pgsql", "pdo_sqlite", "apcu"]:
           assert ext in response, f"Missing {ext} extension"