diff --git a/src/config.c b/src/config.c
index a2b35f1..a8be6d8 100644
--- a/src/config.c
+++ b/src/config.c
@@ -677,9 +677,6 @@ bool config_read_line(struct config_ctx *ctx, const char *input)
 	size_t len, cleaned_len = 0;
 	char *line, *comment;
 	bool ret = true;
-	bool found_equals = false;
-	bool found_value_start = false;
-	size_t value_end = 0;
 
 	/* This is what strchrnul is for, but that isn't portable. */
 	comment = strchr(input, COMMENT_CHAR);
@@ -695,35 +692,9 @@ bool config_read_line(struct config_ctx *ctx, const char *input)
 		goto out;
 	}
 
-	/* Remove preceding and trailing whitespaces before value
-	 First pass: find the actual end of the value (trim trailing spaces) */
-	for (size_t i = len; i > 0; --i) {
-		if (!char_is_space(input[i - 1])) {
-			value_end = i;
-			break;
-		}
-	}
-
-	/* Second pass: clean according to KEY = VALUE rules */
-	for (size_t i = 0; i < value_end; ++i) {
-		if (!found_equals) {
-			/* Before '=': remove all whitespace */
-			if (input[i] == '=') {
-				line[cleaned_len++] = input[i];
-				found_equals = true;
-			} else if (!char_is_space(input[i])) {
-				line[cleaned_len++] = input[i];
-			}
-		} else if (!found_value_start) {
-			/* After '=' but before value: skip whitespace until first non-space */
-			if (!char_is_space(input[i])) {
-				line[cleaned_len++] = input[i];
-				found_value_start = true;
-			}
-		} else {
-			/* Within value: preserve all characters including spaces */
+	for (size_t i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
+		if (!char_is_space(input[i]))
 			line[cleaned_len++] = input[i];
-		}
 	}
 
 	if (!cleaned_len)