diff --git a/ddclient.in b/ddclient.in
index f6487e6..899b674 100755
--- a/ddclient.in
+++ b/ddclient.in
@@ -1614,7 +1614,7 @@ sub _read_config {
         $content .= "$_\n" unless /^#/;
 
         ## parsing passwords is special
-        if (/^([^#]*\s)?([^#]*?password\S*?)\s*=\s*('.*'|[^']\S*)(.*)/) {
+        if (/^([^#]*\s)?([^#]*?password)\s*=\s*('.*'|[^']\S*)(.*)/) {
             my ($head, $key, $value, $tail) = ($1 // '', $2, $3, $4);
             $value = $1 if $value =~ /^'(.*)'$/;
             $passwords{$key} = $value;
@@ -1645,6 +1645,25 @@ sub _read_config {
 
         ## verify that keywords are valid...and check the value
         foreach my $k (keys %locals) {
+            # Handle '_env' keyword suffix
+            if ($k =~ /(.*)_env$/)
+            {
+                debug("Loading value for $1 from environment variable $locals{$k}.");
+                if (exists($ENV{$locals{$k}}))
+                {
+                    # Set the value to the value of the environment variable
+                    $locals{$1} = $ENV{$locals{$k}};
+                    # Remove the '_env' suffix from the key
+                    $k = $1;
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    warning("Environment variable '$locals{$k}' not set for keyword '$k' (ignored)");
+                    delete $locals{$k};
+                    next;
+                }
+            }
+
             $locals{$k} = $passwords{$k} if defined $passwords{$k};
             if (!exists $variables{'merged'}{$k}) {
                 warning("unrecognized keyword '%s' (ignored)", $k);