diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
index ade75e20d511264ac5f01e1f54b6c3a0299e2e9a..8d7c5a77da9282f19d7745dce86f993c047ece10 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger
 
 import scala.collection.Map
 import scala.collection.generic.Growable
-import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
+import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
 import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
 import scala.collection.mutable.HashMap
 
@@ -255,8 +255,10 @@ class SparkContext(
       conf.set("fs.s3n.awsSecretAccessKey", System.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"))
     }
     // Copy any "spark.hadoop.foo=bar" system properties into conf as "foo=bar"
-    for (key <- System.getProperties.toMap[String, String].keys if key.startsWith("spark.hadoop.")) {
-      conf.set(key.substring("spark.hadoop.".length), System.getProperty(key))
+    Utils.getSystemProperties.foreach { case (key, value) =>
+      if (key.startsWith("spark.hadoop.")) {
+        conf.set(key.substring("spark.hadoop.".length), value)
+      }
     }
     val bufferSize = System.getProperty("spark.buffer.size", "65536")
     conf.set("io.file.buffer.size", bufferSize)
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
index fd2811e44c9b118a057725b29043df88d1becc3f..0c5c12b7a83a4f86a8d3118819d2f772aae50981 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.serializer.{DeserializationStream, SerializationStream,
 import org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkHadoopUtil
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer
 import org.apache.spark.{SparkEnv, SparkException, Logging}
+import java.util.ConcurrentModificationException
 
 
 /**
@@ -818,4 +819,10 @@ private[spark] object Utils extends Logging {
     // Nothing else to guard against ?
     hashAbs
   }
+
+  /** Returns a copy of the system properties that is thread-safe to iterator over. */
+  def getSystemProperties(): Map[String, String] = {
+    return System.getProperties().clone()
+      .asInstanceOf[java.util.Properties].toMap[String, String]
+  }
 }