diff --git a/backend/src/handlers/upload.rs b/backend/src/handlers/upload.rs
index d578769..0422e12 100644
--- a/backend/src/handlers/upload.rs
+++ b/backend/src/handlers/upload.rs
@@ -239,12 +239,10 @@ pub async fn upload(
     // vanish with, at best, a vague "could not be processed". Rejecting here gives them a
     // reason at the door that they can act on, and it uses the SAME budget the worker
     // enforces, so admission and processing cannot disagree.
-    if mime.starts_with("image/")
-        && let Err(e) = crate::services::imaging::probe_decodable(&temp_abs)
-    {
+    if mime.starts_with("image/") && crate::services::imaging::exceeds_decode_budget(&temp_abs) {
         let mp = crate::services::imaging::megapixels(&temp_abs);
         tracing::info!(
-            error = ?e, %mime, megapixels = ?mp,
+            %mime, megapixels = ?mp,
             "rejecting an image that exceeds the decode budget at admission"
         );
         let _ = tokio::fs::remove_file(&temp_abs).await;
diff --git a/backend/src/services/imaging.rs b/backend/src/services/imaging.rs
index dc78b47..0266a5c 100644
--- a/backend/src/services/imaging.rs
+++ b/backend/src/services/imaging.rs
@@ -99,13 +99,29 @@ pub fn megapixels(path: &Path) -> Option<f64> {
     Some(f64::from(w) * f64::from(h) / 1_000_000.0)
 }
 
-/// Reject an image the compression worker could never process, reading only its header.
+/// True when an image cannot be decoded specifically because it would exceed the memory
+/// budget — read from the header, no pixels touched.
 ///
-/// Called at upload admission so the guest is told at the door, with a reason they can act
-/// on, instead of the upload being accepted with a 201 and then silently soft-deleted
-/// minutes later when the worker gives up on it.
-pub fn probe_decodable(path: &Path) -> Result<()> {
-    decoder_within_budget(path).map(|_| ())
+/// Called at upload admission so a guest who sends a 100 MP photo is told at the door, with
+/// a reason they can act on, instead of the upload being accepted with a 201 and then
+/// silently soft-deleted minutes later when the worker gives up on it.
+///
+/// Deliberately narrow: ONLY the budget. A corrupt, truncated or unsupported file also
+/// fails to build a decoder, but rejecting those here would change a contract the
+/// adversarial suite pins on purpose — acceptance follows the magic bytes, and a payload
+/// with a valid JPEG header is accepted regardless of what follows it. Those go to the
+/// compression worker as before, which handles them gracefully and (since the retry
+/// classifier) no longer burns backoff on them.
+pub fn exceeds_decode_budget(path: &Path) -> bool {
+    match decoder_within_budget(path) {
+        Ok(_) => false,
+        Err(e) => e.chain().any(|cause| {
+            matches!(
+                cause.downcast_ref::<image::ImageError>(),
+                Some(image::ImageError::Limits(_))
+            )
+        }),
+    }
 }
 
 /// Decode an image from disk with decompression-bomb limits applied and its EXIF
@@ -186,23 +202,49 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    fn probe_agrees_with_the_decoder_on_both_sides() {
-        // Admission and processing must never disagree — a photo accepted at the door and
-        // then rejected by the worker is the exact failure this pair exists to prevent.
+    fn admission_rejects_only_the_over_budget_case() {
+        // Admission and processing must agree about SIZE — a photo accepted at the door and
+        // then rejected by the worker for being too big is the failure this pair prevents.
         assert!(
-            probe_decodable(Path::new(HUGE)).is_err(),
-            "probe must reject what the decoder rejects"
+            exceeds_decode_budget(Path::new(HUGE)),
+            "admission must reject what the decoder rejects for size"
         );
         let ordinary = concat!(
             env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"),
             "/../e2e/fixtures/media/portrait-exif6.jpg"
         );
         assert!(
-            probe_decodable(Path::new(ordinary)).is_ok(),
-            "probe must accept what the decoder accepts"
+            !exceeds_decode_budget(Path::new(ordinary)),
+            "admission must accept an ordinary photo"
         );
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn admission_does_not_reject_a_merely_undecodable_file() {
+        // The narrowing that keeps the adversarial contract intact: a payload with valid
+        // JPEG magic bytes and nothing behind them cannot be decoded, but acceptance follows
+        // the magic bytes by design (07-adversarial/file-upload-attacks). It is the worker's
+        // job to fail it, not admission's — admission is only the resource guard.
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join("eventsnap-imaging-test");
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).expect("tmp dir");
+        let stub = dir.join("magic-only.jpg");
+        let mut bytes = vec![0u8; 1024];
+        bytes[..3].copy_from_slice(&[0xFF, 0xD8, 0xFF]);
+        std::fs::write(&stub, &bytes).expect("write stub");
+
+        assert!(
+            !exceeds_decode_budget(&stub),
+            "a corrupt file is not an over-budget file"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            decode_oriented(&stub)
+                .map(|i| (i.width(), i.height()))
+                .is_err(),
+            "...but it must still fail in the worker"
+        );
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&stub);
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn still_decodes_an_ordinary_photo_and_applies_orientation() {
         // The guard must not have become a blanket refusal. This fixture is 40x20 stored with