diff --git a/src/patchdl_appdb.c b/src/patchdl_appdb.c
index fd244ec..7320cee 100644
--- a/src/patchdl_appdb.c
+++ b/src/patchdl_appdb.c
@@ -61,8 +61,12 @@ patchdl_appdb_load(patchdl_appinfo_t **out, size_t *count) {
     *out = NULL;
     *count = 0;
 
+    /* FULLMUTEX: today only the startup thread calls this, but future code
+       paths (a manual rescan triggered from the HTTP thread) would otherwise
+       race the SQLite handle. Cost is one mutex per call. */
     if (sqlite3_open_v2(APP_DB_URI, &db,
-                        SQLITE_OPEN_READONLY | SQLITE_OPEN_URI, NULL) != SQLITE_OK) {
+                        SQLITE_OPEN_READONLY | SQLITE_OPEN_URI |
+                        SQLITE_OPEN_FULLMUTEX, NULL) != SQLITE_OK) {
         if (db) sqlite3_close(db);
         return -1;
     }
diff --git a/src/patchdl_install.c b/src/patchdl_install.c
index 41f27de..872e86d 100644
--- a/src/patchdl_install.c
+++ b/src/patchdl_install.c
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 #include <stddef.h>
 #include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stdint.h>
+#include <stdatomic.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <string.h>
@@ -112,9 +113,12 @@ static ai_get_status_fn       ai_get_status;
    symbols via the kernel dynlib helpers. Runs in a detached thread; the HTTP
    handler reports the stage and never blocks.
    stage: 0 idle, 1 resolve loader, 2 load modules, 3 resolve symbols,
-   4 initialize, 5 ready, negative = failure at that step. */
-static volatile int    g_stage;
-static int             g_err;
+   4 initialize, 5 ready, negative = failure at that step.
+   Stored as _Atomic so the worker's release-store and the request handlers'
+   acquire-loads pair properly — the function pointers they read after
+   stage==5 must not be reordered ahead of the stage check. */
+static _Atomic int     g_stage;
+static _Atomic int     g_err;
 static pthread_mutex_t g_mtx = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
 static char            g_probe_json[2048]; /* filled by the backend thread */
 static char            g_last_content_id[AI_CONTENTID_SIZE];
diff --git a/src/patchdl_net.c b/src/patchdl_net.c
index 9009132..2bd2e07 100644
--- a/src/patchdl_net.c
+++ b/src/patchdl_net.c
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 #include <arpa/inet.h>
 #include <errno.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 #include <pthread.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
@@ -9,6 +10,7 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <strings.h>
 #include <sys/socket.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <sys/time.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 
@@ -33,6 +35,21 @@
 #define PATCHDL_BUF_MAX_VERXML     (16  * 1024 * 1024)
 #define PATCHDL_BUF_MAX_MANIFEST   (64  * 1024 * 1024)
 
+#ifdef PATCHDL_HAVE_CURL
+/* Replacement for fopen("wb"/"r+b") that refuses to follow a symlink at the
+   destination (would let a malicious symlink redirect the download) and pins
+   the new file's mode to 0600. Returns NULL on any open error. */
+static FILE *
+fopen_safe(const char *path, int rw_existing) {
+    int flags = O_CLOEXEC | O_NOFOLLOW;
+    int fd;
+    flags |= rw_existing ? O_RDWR : (O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC);
+    fd = open(path, flags, 0600);
+    if (fd < 0) return NULL;
+    return fdopen(fd, rw_existing ? "r+b" : "wb");
+}
+#endif
+
 #ifdef PATCHDL_HAVE_CURL
 
 static const char *ALLOWED_HOSTS[] = {
@@ -486,7 +503,7 @@ int
 patchdl_http_download_progress(const char *url, const char *dest_path,
                                long long *bytes_out,
                                patchdl_download_progress_cb cb, void *ctx) {
-    FILE *fp = fopen(dest_path, "wb");
+    FILE *fp = fopen_safe(dest_path, 0);
     progress_state_t progress = { cb, ctx, 0, 0 };
     int rc;
 
@@ -628,10 +645,10 @@ patchdl_http_download_manifest_progress(const char *manifest_url,
        written continues mid-piece via an HTTP byte range (with a fall back to
        re-fetching it whole if the CDN ignores the range). */
     if (resume) {
-        fp = fopen(dest_path, "r+b");
+        fp = fopen_safe(dest_path, 1);
         if (fp) { fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END); have = ftell(fp); if (have < 0) have = 0; }
     }
-    if (!fp) { fp = fopen(dest_path, "wb"); have = 0; }
+    if (!fp) { fp = fopen_safe(dest_path, 0); have = 0; }
     if (!fp) { free(manifest.data); return -1; }
     started = (have <= 0);
 
diff --git a/src/patchdl_websrv.c b/src/patchdl_websrv.c
index b36662c..f2528f7 100644
--- a/src/patchdl_websrv.c
+++ b/src/patchdl_websrv.c
@@ -2013,8 +2013,17 @@ on_request(void *cls, struct MHD_Connection *conn, const char *url,
         return queue_json_owned(conn, MHD_HTTP_OK, strdup(p));
     }
 
-    if (!strcmp(url, "/api/pkgdiag"))
-        return queue_json(conn, MHD_HTTP_OK, g_pkg_diag_json);
+    if (!strcmp(url, "/api/pkgdiag")) {
+        /* Snapshot under the lock — otherwise MHD would read g_pkg_diag_json
+           in-place (RESPMEM_PERSISTENT) while record_pkg_diag is mid-snprintf,
+           producing a torn read or a missing NUL terminator. */
+        char snap[sizeof(g_pkg_diag_json)];
+        pthread_mutex_lock(&g_mutex);
+        memcpy(snap, g_pkg_diag_json, sizeof(snap));
+        pthread_mutex_unlock(&g_mutex);
+        snap[sizeof(snap) - 1] = '\0';
+        return queue_json_owned(conn, MHD_HTTP_OK, strdup(snap));
+    }
 
     /* Read-only diagnostic: re-fetch the patch manifest for a title (PatchDL can
        bypass the DNS block) and dump each piece's offset/size/SHA-256 so the