diff --git a/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/settings/building/DefaultSettingsBuilder.java b/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/settings/building/DefaultSettingsBuilder.java
index e5fdee9655..3620d5bb9e 100644
--- a/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/settings/building/DefaultSettingsBuilder.java
+++ b/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/settings/building/DefaultSettingsBuilder.java
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 import org.codehaus.plexus.component.annotations.Requirement;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.interpolation.EnvarBasedValueSource;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.interpolation.InterpolationException;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.interpolation.InterpolationPostProcessor;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.interpolation.PropertiesBasedValueSource;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.interpolation.RegexBasedInterpolator;
 
@@ -189,6 +190,20 @@ private Settings interpolate( Settings settings, SettingsBuildingRequest request
                 + e.getMessage(), -1, -1, e );
         }
 
+        interpolator.addPostProcessor( new InterpolationPostProcessor()
+        {
+            public Object execute( String expression, Object value )
+            {
+                if ( value != null )
+                {
+                    // we're going to parse this back in as XML so we need to escape XML markup
+                    value = value.toString().replace( "&", "&amp;" ).replace( "<", "&lt;" ).replace( ">", "&gt;" );
+                    return value;
+                }
+                return null;
+            }
+        } );
+
         try
         {
             serializedSettings = interpolator.interpolate( serializedSettings, "settings" );