diff --git a/hbd/client/plugins/nagios_runner.py b/hbd/client/plugins/nagios_runner.py
index d2b0c22..12fdaf1 100644
--- a/hbd/client/plugins/nagios_runner.py
+++ b/hbd/client/plugins/nagios_runner.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ nagios_runner:
 import asyncio
 import os
 import re
+import shlex
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
 
 from hbd.client.plugin import MonitorPlugin
@@ -101,7 +102,13 @@ class NagiosRunnerPlugin(MonitorPlugin):
             command = cmd_config.get("command", "")
             if not command:
                 continue
-            exe = command.split()[0]
+            try:
+                tokens = shlex.split(command)
+            except ValueError:
+                continue  # malformed command string; skip validation
+            if not tokens:
+                continue
+            exe = tokens[0]
             if os.path.isabs(exe):
                 if not os.path.isfile(exe):
                     self.logger.warning(