diff --git a/system/Commands/Server/Serve.php b/system/Commands/Server/Serve.php
index 594e4e587e27..cd9f8ef01cff 100644
--- a/system/Commands/Server/Serve.php
+++ b/system/Commands/Server/Serve.php
@@ -95,6 +95,11 @@ public function run(array $params)
         $host = CLI::getOption('host') ?? 'localhost';
         $port = (int) (CLI::getOption('port') ?? 8080) + $this->portOffset;
 
+        // Build a single shell-escaped host:port argument so the resulting
+        // command is safe regardless of what the user passed via --host,
+        // while $host remains in its raw form for the display below.
+        $address = escapeshellarg($host . ':' . $port);
+
         // Get the party started.
         CLI::write('CodeIgniter development server started on http://' . $host . ':' . $port, 'green');
         CLI::write('Press Control-C to stop.');
@@ -108,7 +113,7 @@ public function run(array $params)
         // Call PHP's built-in webserver, making sure to set our
         // base path to the public folder, and to use the rewrite file
         // to ensure our environment is set and it simulates basic mod_rewrite.
-        passthru($php . ' -S ' . $host . ':' . $port . ' -t ' . $docroot . ' ' . $rewrite, $status);
+        passthru($php . ' -S ' . $address . ' -t ' . $docroot . ' ' . $rewrite, $status);
 
         if ($status !== EXIT_SUCCESS && $this->portOffset < $this->tries) {
             $this->portOffset++;
diff --git a/tests/system/Commands/Server/ServeTest.php b/tests/system/Commands/Server/ServeTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e8be33d31a27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/system/Commands/Server/ServeTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+/**
+ * This file is part of CodeIgniter 4 framework.
+ *
+ * (c) CodeIgniter Foundation <admin@codeigniter.com>
+ *
+ * For the full copyright and license information, please view
+ * the LICENSE file that was distributed with this source code.
+ */
+
+namespace CodeIgniter\Commands\Server;
+
+use CodeIgniter\Test\CIUnitTestCase;
+use CodeIgniter\Test\StreamFilterTrait;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\Attributes\Group;
+
+/**
+ * Override the global passthru() within this namespace so the unit test
+ * can capture the shell command that Serve::run() would otherwise execute.
+ *
+ * @internal
+ */
+function passthru(string $command, ?int &$result_code = null): void
+{
+    ServeTest::$capturedCommand = $command;
+    $result_code                = 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * @internal
+ */
+#[Group('Others')]
+final class ServeTest extends CIUnitTestCase
+{
+    use StreamFilterTrait;
+
+    /**
+     * Captured shell command from the namespaced passthru() stub above.
+     */
+    public static string $capturedCommand = '';
+
+    protected function setUp(): void
+    {
+        parent::setUp();
+
+        self::$capturedCommand = '';
+        $_SERVER['argv']       = ['spark', 'serve'];
+    }
+
+    protected function tearDown(): void
+    {
+        // Restore default argv so other tests are not affected.
+        $_SERVER['argv'] = ['spark'];
+
+        parent::tearDown();
+    }
+
+    public function testServeRunsWithDefaultHostAndPort(): void
+    {
+        command('serve');
+
+        $this->assertStringContainsString(' -S ', self::$capturedCommand);
+        $this->assertStringContainsString("'localhost:8080'", self::$capturedCommand);
+    }
+
+    public function testServeEscapesShellMetacharactersInHost(): void
+    {
+        $_SERVER['argv'] = ['spark', 'serve', '--host', '$(id)'];
+
+        command('serve --host="$(id)"');
+
+        // The literal '$(id)' must remain inside single quotes so /bin/sh -c
+        // never expands it into a sub-shell. escapeshellarg() wraps the
+        // entire host:port pair in single quotes and escapes any embedded
+        // single quote.
+        $this->assertStringNotContainsString(' $(id) ', self::$capturedCommand);
+        $this->assertMatchesRegularExpression(
+            "/'[^']*\\\$\\(id\\)[^']*:[0-9]+'/",
+            self::$capturedCommand,
+            'host:port must be wrapped in single quotes by escapeshellarg()',
+        );
+    }
+
+    public function testServeEscapesEmbeddedSingleQuoteInHost(): void
+    {
+        $_SERVER['argv'] = ['spark', 'serve', '--host', "evil'host"];
+
+        command("serve --host=\"evil'host\"");
+
+        // escapeshellarg() turns a single quote into '\'' inside the wrapper,
+        // so the dangerous quote can never break out of the argument.
+        $this->assertStringNotContainsString(" evil'host:", self::$capturedCommand);
+        $this->assertStringContainsString("'\\''", self::$capturedCommand);
+    }
+}