diff --git a/docs/changes.txt b/docs/changes.txt
index de66f788e..6d7c2b841 100644
--- a/docs/changes.txt
+++ b/docs/changes.txt
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
 ##
 
 - Autodetect: Limit the number of errors per hash-mode try to 100 to avoid long startup time
+- Folders: Do not escape the variable cpath_real to prevent certain OpenCL runtimes from running into an error which do not support escape characters
 - LM: Workaround JiT compiler bug in -m 3000 on NV leading to false negatives with large amount of hashes
 - Tests: Changed tests for VeraCrypt from -a 0 to -a 3, because password extension is not available to all shells
 
diff --git a/src/backend.c b/src/backend.c
index c5c3828a4..6892eb7c1 100644
--- a/src/backend.c
+++ b/src/backend.c
@@ -7714,7 +7714,8 @@ static u32 get_kernel_threads (const hc_device_param_t *device_param)
 
 static bool load_kernel (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx, hc_device_param_t *device_param, const char *kernel_name, char *source_file, char *cached_file, const char *build_options_buf, const bool cache_disable, cl_program *opencl_program, CUmodule *cuda_module)
 {
-  const hashconfig_t *hashconfig = hashcat_ctx->hashconfig;
+  const hashconfig_t    *hashconfig    = hashcat_ctx->hashconfig;
+  const folder_config_t *folder_config = hashcat_ctx->folder_config;
 
   bool cached = true;
 
@@ -7761,7 +7762,7 @@ static bool load_kernel (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx, hc_device_param_t *device_p
 
       if (hc_nvrtcCreateProgram (hashcat_ctx, &program, kernel_sources[0], kernel_name, 0, NULL, NULL) == -1) return false;
 
-      char **nvrtc_options = (char **) hccalloc (4 + strlen (build_options_buf) + 1, sizeof (char *)); // ...
+      char **nvrtc_options = (char **) hccalloc (6 + strlen (build_options_buf) + 1, sizeof (char *)); // ...
 
       nvrtc_options[0] = "--restrict";
       nvrtc_options[1] = "--device-as-default-execution-space";
@@ -7769,9 +7770,12 @@ static bool load_kernel (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx, hc_device_param_t *device_p
 
       hc_asprintf (&nvrtc_options[3], "compute_%d%d", device_param->sm_major, device_param->sm_minor);
 
+      nvrtc_options[4] = "-I";
+      nvrtc_options[5] = folder_config->cpath_real;
+
       char *nvrtc_options_string = hcstrdup (build_options_buf);
 
-      const int num_options = 4 + nvrtc_make_options_array_from_string (nvrtc_options_string, nvrtc_options + 4);
+      const int num_options = 6 + nvrtc_make_options_array_from_string (nvrtc_options_string, nvrtc_options + 6);
 
       const int rc_nvrtcCompileProgram = hc_nvrtcCompileProgram (hashcat_ctx, program, num_options, (const char * const *) nvrtc_options);
 
@@ -8646,11 +8650,17 @@ int backend_session_begin (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx)
 
     int build_options_len = 0;
 
-    #if defined (_WIN)
-    build_options_len += snprintf (build_options_buf + build_options_len, build_options_sz - build_options_len, "-D KERNEL_STATIC -I OpenCL -I \"%s\" ", folder_config->cpath_real);
-    #else
-    build_options_len += snprintf (build_options_buf + build_options_len, build_options_sz - build_options_len, "-D KERNEL_STATIC -I OpenCL -I %s ", folder_config->cpath_real);
-    #endif
+    if (device_param->is_cuda == true)
+    {
+      // using a path with a space will break nvrtc_make_options_array_from_string()
+      // we add it to options array in a clean way later
+
+      build_options_len += snprintf (build_options_buf + build_options_len, build_options_sz - build_options_len, "-D KERNEL_STATIC -I OpenCL ");
+    }
+    else
+    {
+      build_options_len += snprintf (build_options_buf + build_options_len, build_options_sz - build_options_len, "-D KERNEL_STATIC -I OpenCL -I \"%s\" ", folder_config->cpath_real);
+    }
 
     /* currently disabled, hangs NEO drivers since 20.09.
        was required for NEO driver 20.08 to workaround the same issue!
diff --git a/src/folder.c b/src/folder.c
index 12f1f9727..eb5914dbe 100644
--- a/src/folder.c
+++ b/src/folder.c
@@ -507,16 +507,12 @@ int folder_config_init (hashcat_ctx_t *hashcat_ctx, MAYBE_UNUSED const char *ins
   }
   */
 
-  #if defined (_WIN)
-
-  naive_replace (cpath_real, '\\', '/');
-
-  // not escaping here, windows using quotes later
+  // not escaping here, using quotes later
   // naive_escape (cpath_real, PATH_MAX,  ' ', '\\');
 
-  #else
+  #if defined (_WIN)
 
-  naive_escape (cpath_real, PATH_MAX,  ' ', '\\');
+  naive_replace (cpath_real, '\\', '/');
 
   #endif