diff --git a/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon.go b/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon.go
index d9868b67..6a2edce7 100644
--- a/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon.go
+++ b/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon.go
@@ -345,6 +345,7 @@ func LookupPackageDownloadString(value bool) string {
 // splitVariableString is a derivative of splitPackageOverrideString in release create.
 // it is required because the builtin go strings.SplitN can't handle more than one delimeter character.
 // otherwise it works the same, but caps the number of splits at 'n'
+
 func splitVariableString(s string, n int) []string {
 	// pass 1: collect spans; golang strings.FieldsFunc says it's much more efficient this way
 	type span struct {
@@ -355,8 +356,15 @@ func splitVariableString(s string, n int) []string {
 
 	// Find the field start and end indices.
 	start := 0 // we always start the first span at the beginning of the string
+	escaped := false
+
 	for idx, ch := range s {
-		if ch == ':' || ch == '=' {
+		if ch == '\\' && !escaped {
+			escaped = true
+			continue
+		}
+
+		if (ch == ':' || ch == '=') && (!escaped) {
 			if start >= 0 { // we found a delimiter and we are already in a span; end the span and start a new one
 				if len(spans) == n-1 { // we're about to append the last span, break so the 'last field' code consumes the rest of the string
 					break
@@ -369,6 +377,8 @@ func splitVariableString(s string, n int) []string {
 					start = idx
 				}
 			}
+		} else {
+			escaped = false
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -382,9 +392,31 @@ func splitVariableString(s string, n int) []string {
 	for i, span := range spans {
 		a[i] = s[span.start:span.end]
 	}
+
+	// the parts
+	for i, part := range a {
+		a[i] = unescape(part)
+	}
+
 	return a
 }
 
+func unescape(s string) string {
+	result := make([]rune, 0, len(s))
+	escaped := false
+
+	for _, ch := range s {
+		if ch == '\\' && !escaped {
+			escaped = true
+			continue
+		}
+		result = append(result, ch)
+		escaped = false
+	}
+
+	return string(result)
+}
+
 // ScheduledStartTimeAnswerFormatter is passed to the DatePicker so that if the user selects a time within the next
 // one minute after 'now', it will show the answer as the string "Now" rather than the actual datetime string
 func ScheduledStartTimeAnswerFormatter(datePicker *surveyext.DatePicker, t time.Time) string {
diff --git a/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon_test.go b/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon_test.go
index 8750c72f..8fb92941 100644
--- a/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon_test.go
+++ b/pkg/executionscommon/executionscommon_test.go
@@ -336,6 +336,7 @@ func TestParseVariableStringArray(t *testing.T) {
 		{name: "foo=bar,baz=qux", input: []string{"foo=bar", "baz=qux"}, expect: map[string]string{"foo": "bar", "baz": "qux"}},
 
 		{name: "foo:bar:more=stuff", input: []string{"foo:bar:more=stuff"}, expect: map[string]string{"foo": "bar:more=stuff"}},
+		{name: "foo\\:bar:more=stuff", input: []string{"foo\\:bar:more=stuff"}, expect: map[string]string{"foo:bar": "more=stuff"}},
 
 		{name: "trims whitespace", input: []string{" foo : \tbar "}, expect: map[string]string{"foo": "bar"}},