diff --git a/src/shared/network/remoteImageFetch.ts b/src/shared/network/remoteImageFetch.ts
index 2e8fc130b1..2f982a0bd9 100644
--- a/src/shared/network/remoteImageFetch.ts
+++ b/src/shared/network/remoteImageFetch.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { Agent, fetch as undiciFetch } from "undici";
 import {
   type OutboundUrlGuardMode,
   isPrivateHost,
+  parseAndValidateNonMetadataUrl,
   parseAndValidatePublicUrl,
   parseOutboundUrl,
 } from "@/shared/network/outboundUrlGuard";
@@ -51,7 +52,9 @@ export type RemoteMediaFetchOptions = RemoteImageFetchOptions;
 export type RemoteMediaFetchResult = RemoteImageFetchResult;
 
 function validateRemoteImageUrl(input: string | URL, guard: OutboundUrlGuardMode) {
-  return guard === "public-only" ? parseAndValidatePublicUrl(input) : parseOutboundUrl(input);
+  if (guard === "public-only") return parseAndValidatePublicUrl(input);
+  if (guard === "block-metadata") return parseAndValidateNonMetadataUrl(input);
+  return parseOutboundUrl(input);
 }
 
 function requireHttps(url: URL, enabled: boolean): URL {
diff --git a/tests/unit/remote-image-fetch.test.ts b/tests/unit/remote-image-fetch.test.ts
index 80ff9e3e7c..8014397165 100644
--- a/tests/unit/remote-image-fetch.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/remote-image-fetch.test.ts
@@ -56,3 +56,52 @@ test("fetchRemoteImage blocks redirects to private image hosts", async () => {
     /Blocked private or local provider URL/
   );
 });
+
+// The default guard mode (no `guard` option passed, matching production callers that rely on
+// `getProviderOutboundGuard()`'s local-first default) is "block-metadata". Every other test in
+// this file passes `guard: "public-only"` explicitly, which never exercised this branch — the
+// gap that let `validateRemoteImageUrl()`'s fall-through to the unchecked `parseOutboundUrl()`
+// for cloud-metadata hosts go undetected.
+test("fetchRemoteImage blocks cloud-metadata hosts under the default block-metadata guard", async () => {
+  let called = false;
+
+  await assert.rejects(
+    () =>
+      fetchRemoteImage("http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data", {
+        fetchImpl: async () => {
+          called = true;
+          return new Response("unexpected");
+        },
+      }),
+    /Blocked cloud-metadata endpoint/
+  );
+
+  assert.equal(called, false);
+});
+
+test("fetchRemoteImage allows private/LAN image hosts under the default block-metadata guard", async () => {
+  const result = await fetchRemoteImage("http://192.168.1.50:8080/local.png", {
+    fetchImpl: async () =>
+      new Response(new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]), {
+        status: 200,
+        headers: { "content-type": "image/png" },
+      }),
+  });
+
+  assert.equal(result.buffer.toString("base64"), "AQID");
+});
+
+test("fetchRemoteImage blocks redirects to cloud-metadata hosts under the default block-metadata guard", async () => {
+  await assert.rejects(
+    () =>
+      fetchRemoteImage("https://cdn.example.com/redirect.png", {
+        fetchImpl: async () =>
+          new Response(null, {
+            status: 302,
+            headers: { location: "http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data" },
+          }),
+        lookup: publicLookup,
+      }),
+    /Blocked cloud-metadata endpoint/
+  );
+});