diff --git a/.drone.yml b/.drone.yml
index c2291b2..dcbb766 100644
--- a/.drone.yml
+++ b/.drone.yml
@@ -125,13 +125,14 @@ steps:
       - export VM_IP=192.168.178.$((211 + DRONE_BUILD_NUMBER % 44))
       - export RUN_ID=$(echo $DRONE_COMMIT_SHA | head -c 8)
       - export API_URL="http://e2e$${RUN_ID}.192.168.178.201.nip.io"
+      - export SSHPASS="$E2E_VM_PASSWORD"
       - echo "VM_IP=$VM_IP RUN_ID=$RUN_ID API_URL=$API_URL"
       - echo "Waiting for VM to be reachable..."
-      - timeout 60 bash -c "until sshpass -p \"$E2E_VM_PASSWORD\" ssh debian@$VM_IP 'echo ok'; do sleep 5; done"
-      - sshpass -p "$E2E_VM_PASSWORD" scp scripts/e2e-test.sh debian@$VM_IP:/tmp/e2e-test.sh
-      - sshpass -p "$E2E_VM_PASSWORD" ssh debian@$VM_IP "chmod +x /tmp/e2e-test.sh"
-      - sshpass -p "$E2E_VM_PASSWORD" ssh debian@$VM_IP "REPO_URL=https://gitea.gilmour109.de/gilmour109/calchat.git COMMIT_SHA=$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA API_URL=$API_URL bash /tmp/e2e-test.sh"
-      - sshpass -p "$E2E_VM_PASSWORD" scp debian@$VM_IP:/tmp/e2e-results.txt /tmp/e2e-results.txt
+      - timeout 60 sh -c 'until sshpass -e ssh debian@'"$VM_IP"' echo ok; do sleep 5; done'
+      - sshpass -e scp scripts/e2e-test.sh debian@$VM_IP:/tmp/e2e-test.sh
+      - sshpass -e ssh debian@$VM_IP chmod +x /tmp/e2e-test.sh
+      - sshpass -e ssh debian@$VM_IP "REPO_URL=https://gitea.gilmour109.de/gilmour109/calchat.git COMMIT_SHA=$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA API_URL=$API_URL bash /tmp/e2e-test.sh"
+      - sshpass -e scp debian@$VM_IP:/tmp/e2e-results.txt /tmp/e2e-results.txt
 
   - name: destroy_e2e_vm
     image: gitea.gilmour109.de/gilmour109/e2e-tools:latest