diff --git a/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/Client.scala b/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/Client.scala
index 7225ff03dc34e..793d012218490 100644
--- a/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/Client.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/Client.scala
@@ -899,7 +899,8 @@ private[spark] class Client(
       val libraryPaths = Seq(sparkConf.get(DRIVER_LIBRARY_PATH),
         sys.props.get("spark.driver.libraryPath")).flatten
       if (libraryPaths.nonEmpty) {
-        prefixEnv = Some(getClusterPath(sparkConf, Utils.libraryPathEnvPrefix(libraryPaths)))
+        prefixEnv = Some(createLibraryPathPrefix(libraryPaths.mkString(File.pathSeparator),
+          sparkConf))
       }
       if (sparkConf.get(AM_JAVA_OPTIONS).isDefined) {
         logWarning(s"${AM_JAVA_OPTIONS.key} will not take effect in cluster mode")
@@ -921,7 +922,7 @@ private[spark] class Client(
           .map(YarnSparkHadoopUtil.escapeForShell)
       }
       sparkConf.get(AM_LIBRARY_PATH).foreach { paths =>
-        prefixEnv = Some(getClusterPath(sparkConf, Utils.libraryPathEnvPrefix(Seq(paths))))
+        prefixEnv = Some(createLibraryPathPrefix(paths, sparkConf))
       }
     }
 
@@ -1485,6 +1486,23 @@ private object Client extends Logging {
     YarnAppReport(report.getYarnApplicationState(), report.getFinalApplicationStatus(), diagsOpt)
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Create a properly quoted and escaped library path string to be added as a prefix to the command
+   * executed by YARN. This is different from normal quoting / escaping due to YARN executing the
+   * command through "bash -c".
+   */
+  def createLibraryPathPrefix(libpath: String, conf: SparkConf): String = {
+    val cmdPrefix = if (Utils.isWindows) {
+      Utils.libraryPathEnvPrefix(Seq(libpath))
+    } else {
+      val envName = Utils.libraryPathEnvName
+      // For quotes, escape both the quote and the escape character when encoding in the command
+      // string.
+      val quoted = libpath.replace("\"", "\\\\\\\"")
+      envName + "=\\\"" + quoted + File.pathSeparator + "$" + envName + "\\\""
+    }
+    getClusterPath(conf, cmdPrefix)
+  }
 }
 
 private[spark] class YarnClusterApplication extends SparkApplication {
diff --git a/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala b/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala
index a2a18cdff65af..49a0b93aa5c40 100644
--- a/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ExecutorRunnable.scala
@@ -131,10 +131,6 @@ private[yarn] class ExecutorRunnable(
     // Extra options for the JVM
     val javaOpts = ListBuffer[String]()
 
-    // Set the environment variable through a command prefix
-    // to append to the existing value of the variable
-    var prefixEnv: Option[String] = None
-
     // Set the JVM memory
     val executorMemoryString = executorMemory + "m"
     javaOpts += "-Xmx" + executorMemoryString
@@ -144,8 +140,11 @@ private[yarn] class ExecutorRunnable(
       val subsOpt = Utils.substituteAppNExecIds(opts, appId, executorId)
       javaOpts ++= Utils.splitCommandString(subsOpt).map(YarnSparkHadoopUtil.escapeForShell)
     }
-    sparkConf.get(EXECUTOR_LIBRARY_PATH).foreach { p =>
-      prefixEnv = Some(Client.getClusterPath(sparkConf, Utils.libraryPathEnvPrefix(Seq(p))))
+
+    // Set the library path through a command prefix to append to the existing value of the
+    // env variable.
+    val prefixEnv = sparkConf.get(EXECUTOR_LIBRARY_PATH).map { libPath =>
+      Client.createLibraryPathPrefix(libPath, sparkConf)
     }
 
     javaOpts += "-Djava.io.tmpdir=" +
diff --git a/resource-managers/yarn/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/BaseYarnClusterSuite.scala b/resource-managers/yarn/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/BaseYarnClusterSuite.scala
index ac67f2196e0a0..b0abcc9149d08 100644
--- a/resource-managers/yarn/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/BaseYarnClusterSuite.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/yarn/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/BaseYarnClusterSuite.scala
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import org.scalatest.concurrent.Eventually._
 import org.apache.spark._
 import org.apache.spark.deploy.yarn.config._
 import org.apache.spark.internal.Logging
+import org.apache.spark.internal.config._
 import org.apache.spark.launcher._
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
 
@@ -216,6 +217,14 @@ abstract class BaseYarnClusterSuite
     props.setProperty("spark.driver.extraJavaOptions", "-Dfoo=\"one two three\"")
     props.setProperty("spark.executor.extraJavaOptions", "-Dfoo=\"one two three\"")
 
+    // SPARK-24446: make sure special characters in the library path do not break containers.
+    if (!Utils.isWindows) {
+      val libPath = """/tmp/does not exist:$PWD/tmp:/tmp/quote":/tmp/ampersand&"""
+      props.setProperty(AM_LIBRARY_PATH.key, libPath)
+      props.setProperty(DRIVER_LIBRARY_PATH.key, libPath)
+      props.setProperty(EXECUTOR_LIBRARY_PATH.key, libPath)
+    }
+
     yarnCluster.getConfig().asScala.foreach { e =>
       props.setProperty("spark.hadoop." + e.getKey(), e.getValue())
     }