diff --git a/lib/Test/DiagINC.pm b/lib/Test/DiagINC.pm
index 3bc382c..ecaf3f3 100644
--- a/lib/Test/DiagINC.pm
+++ b/lib/Test/DiagINC.pm
@@ -22,7 +22,12 @@ sub _max_length {
 # Get our CWD *without* loading anything. Original idea by xdg++
 # ribasushi thinks this is fragile and will break sooner rather than
 # later, but adding it as is because haarg and xdg both claim it's fine
-my $REALPATH_CWD = `$^X -MCwd -e print+getcwd`;
+my $REALPATH_CWD = do {
+    local $ENV{PATH};
+    my ($perl) = $^X =~ /(.+)/; # $^X is internal how could it be tainted?!
+    `$perl -MCwd -e print+getcwd`;
+};
+
 my $ORIGINAL_PID = $$;
 
 END {
diff --git a/t/basic.t b/t/basic.t
index f4afb2c..3eb21dc 100644
--- a/t/basic.t
+++ b/t/basic.t
@@ -8,10 +8,22 @@ push @testfiles, 'fails_in_end.t' unless $] < 5.008;
 
 plan tests => @testfiles * ($] < 5.010 ? 3 : 4);
 
+my $tainted_run = ! eval { $ENV{PATH} . kill(0) and 1 }
+  and diag ( __FILE__ . ' running under taint mode' );
+
+local $ENV{AUTOMATED_TESTING} = 1;
+
+# untaint PATH but do not unset it so we test that $^X will
+# run with it just fine
+local ( $ENV{PATH} ) = $ENV{PATH} =~ /(.*)/ if $tainted_run;
+
 for my $file (@testfiles) {
-    $ENV{AUTOMATED_TESTING} = 1;
     my ( $stdout, $stderr ) = capture {
-        system( $^X, "examples/$file" );
+        system(
+            ($^X =~ /(.+)/),  # $^X is internal how can it be tainted?!
+            ( $tainted_run ? (qw( -I . -I lib -T )) : () ),
+            "examples/$file"
+        );
     };
 
     like( $stderr, qr/\QListing modules from %INC/, "$file: Saw diagnostic header" );
diff --git a/t/taint.t b/t/taint.t
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4882dfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/taint.t
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+use File::Spec;
+
+# there is talk of possible perl compilations where -T is a fatal
+# we don't want to have the user deal with that
+system( $^X => -T => -e => 'use warnings; use strict; exit 0' );
+if ($?) {
+    print "1..0 # SKIP Your perl does not seem to like -T...\n";
+    exit 0;
+}
+
+# all is well - just rerun the basic test
+exec( $^X => -T => File::Spec->catpath(
+    (File::Spec->splitpath( __FILE__ ))[0,1],
+    'basic.t'
+) );