diff --git a/builtin/gc.c b/builtin/gc.c
index 3d258b60c2..acfd5b9cf6 100644
--- a/builtin/gc.c
+++ b/builtin/gc.c
@@ -1462,7 +1462,8 @@ static int maintenance_register(void)
 		git_config_set("maintenance.strategy", "incremental");
 
 	config_get.git_cmd = 1;
-	strvec_pushl(&config_get.args, "config", "--global", "--get", "maintenance.repo",
+	strvec_pushl(&config_get.args, "config", "--global", "--get",
+		     "--fixed-value", "maintenance.repo",
 		     the_repository->worktree ? the_repository->worktree
 					      : the_repository->gitdir,
 			 NULL);
@@ -1493,7 +1494,7 @@ static int maintenance_unregister(void)
 
 	config_unset.git_cmd = 1;
 	strvec_pushl(&config_unset.args, "config", "--global", "--unset",
-		     "maintenance.repo",
+		     "--fixed-value", "maintenance.repo",
 		     the_repository->worktree ? the_repository->worktree
 					      : the_repository->gitdir,
 		     NULL);
diff --git a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
index d9e68bb2bf..ee91a714b9 100755
--- a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
+++ b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
@@ -404,6 +404,18 @@ test_expect_success 'register and unregister' '
 	test_cmp before actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success !MINGW 'register and unregister with regex metacharacters' '
+	META="a+b*c" &&
+	git init "$META" &&
+	git -C "$META" maintenance register &&
+	git config --get-all --show-origin maintenance.repo &&
+	git config --get-all --global --fixed-value \
+		maintenance.repo "$(pwd)/$META" &&
+	git -C "$META" maintenance unregister &&
+	test_must_fail git config --get-all --global --fixed-value \
+		maintenance.repo "$(pwd)/$META"
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'start from empty cron table' '
 	GIT_TEST_CRONTAB="test-tool crontab cron.txt" git maintenance start &&