diff --git a/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/form_based.test.ts b/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/form_based.test.ts
index 990e8a1e30c5e..7814a30769142 100644
--- a/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/form_based.test.ts
+++ b/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/form_based.test.ts
@@ -2481,6 +2481,59 @@ describe('IndexPattern Data Source', () => {
           disabled: { kuery: [], lucene: [] },
         });
       });
+      it('should escape special characters in term values for valid KQL syntax', () => {
+        publicAPI = FormBasedDatasource.getPublicAPI({
+          state: {
+            ...baseState,
+            layers: {
+              first: {
+                indexPatternId: '1',
+                columnOrder: ['col1'],
+                columns: {
+                  col1: {
+                    label: 'Terms',
+                    dataType: 'string',
+                    isBucketed: true,
+                    operationType: 'terms',
+                    sourceField: 'path.keyword',
+                    params: {
+                      orderBy: { type: 'alphabetical' },
+                      orderDirection: 'asc',
+                      size: 10,
+                    },
+                  } as TermsIndexPatternColumn,
+                },
+              },
+            },
+          },
+          layerId: 'first',
+          indexPatterns,
+        });
+        const data = {
+          first: {
+            type: 'datatable' as const,
+            columns: [{ id: 'col1', name: 'path.keyword', meta: { type: 'string' as const } }],
+            rows: [
+              { col1: 'C:\\' },
+              { col1: 'path with "quotes"' },
+              { col1: 'backslash\\and"quote' },
+            ],
+          },
+        };
+        expect(publicAPI.getFilters(data)).toEqual({
+          enabled: {
+            kuery: [
+              [
+                { language: 'kuery', query: 'path.keyword: "C:\\\\"' },
+                { language: 'kuery', query: 'path.keyword: "path with \\"quotes\\""' },
+                { language: 'kuery', query: 'path.keyword: "backslash\\\\and\\"quote"' },
+              ],
+            ],
+            lucene: [],
+          },
+          disabled: { kuery: [], lucene: [] },
+        });
+      });
       it('should ignore top values fields if other/missing option is enabled', () => {
         publicAPI = FormBasedDatasource.getPublicAPI({
           state: {
diff --git a/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/utils.tsx b/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/utils.tsx
index 1ba8f7ca959c7..75fefd1bc9b7c 100644
--- a/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/utils.tsx
+++ b/x-pack/platform/plugins/shared/lens/public/datasources/form_based/utils.tsx
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@ import { FormattedMessage } from '@kbn/i18n-react';
 import type { DocLinksStart, ThemeServiceStart } from '@kbn/core/public';
 import { hasUnsupportedDownsampledAggregationFailure } from '@kbn/search-response-warnings';
 import type { DatatableUtilitiesService } from '@kbn/data-plugin/common';
-import type { TimeRange } from '@kbn/es-query';
+import { escapeQuotes, type TimeRange } from '@kbn/es-query';
 import { EuiLink, EuiSpacer } from '@elastic/eui';
 
 import type { DatatableColumn } from '@kbn/expressions-plugin/common';
-import { groupBy, escape, uniq, uniqBy } from 'lodash';
+import { groupBy, uniq, uniqBy } from 'lodash';
 import type { Query } from '@kbn/data-plugin/common';
 
 import {
@@ -747,13 +747,10 @@ function extractQueriesFromTerms(
       }
       if (typeof value !== 'string' && Array.isArray(value.keys)) {
         return value.keys
-          .map(
-            (term: string, index: number) =>
-              `${fields[index]}: ${`"${term === '' ? escape(term) : term}"`}`
-          )
+          .map((term: string, index: number) => `${fields[index]}: "${escapeQuotes(term)}"`)
           .join(' AND ');
       }
-      return `${column.sourceField}: ${`"${value === '' ? escape(value) : value}"`}`;
+      return `${column.sourceField}: "${escapeQuotes(String(value))}"`;
     })
     .filter(Boolean) as string[];