diff --git a/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public.go b/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public.go
index 48981e3b..914b82b3 100644
--- a/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public.go
+++ b/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public.go
@@ -364,12 +364,36 @@ func (s *public) listCtrl(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	}
 }
 
+// safePictureSegment reports whether seg is acceptable as a path segment in
+// the picture URL (no traversal markers, no path separators, no NULs). Picture
+// IDs are server-generated hashes plus a known extension, so any value carrying
+// these characters is hostile and must be rejected before reaching the store.
+func safePictureSegment(seg string) bool {
+	if seg == "" || seg == "." || seg == ".." {
+		return false
+	}
+	if strings.ContainsAny(seg, "/\\\x00") {
+		return false
+	}
+	if strings.Contains(seg, "..") {
+		return false
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
 // GET /picture/{user}/{id} - get picture
 func (s *public) loadPictureCtrl(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
-	id := chi.URLParam(r, "user") + "/" + chi.URLParam(r, "id")
+	user, imgID := chi.URLParam(r, "user"), chi.URLParam(r, "id")
+	if user == "" || imgID == "" || !safePictureSegment(user) || !safePictureSegment(imgID) {
+		log.Printf("[WARN] rejected picture request with unsafe id segments user=%q id=%q", user, imgID)
+		rest.SendErrorJSON(w, r, http.StatusBadRequest, fmt.Errorf("invalid picture id"), "invalid picture id", rest.ErrAssetNotFound)
+		return
+	}
+	id := user + "/" + imgID
 	img, err := s.imageService.Load(id)
 	if err != nil {
-		rest.SendErrorJSON(w, r, http.StatusBadRequest, err, "can't get image "+id, rest.ErrAssetNotFound)
+		log.Printf("[WARN] can't load image %s: %v", id, err)
+		rest.SendErrorJSON(w, r, http.StatusBadRequest, fmt.Errorf("image not found"), "can't get image", rest.ErrAssetNotFound)
 		return
 	}
 	// enforce client-side caching
@@ -431,7 +455,7 @@ func (s *public) telegramQrCtrl(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	}
 
 	w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "image/png")
-	if _, err = w.Write(png); err != nil {
+	if _, err = w.Write(png); err != nil { //nolint:gosec // png bytes from go-qrcode, not HTML
 		log.Printf("[WARN] can't render qr, %v", err)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public_test.go b/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public_test.go
index 0f97e28b..646c0298 100644
--- a/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public_test.go
+++ b/backend/app/rest/api/rest_public_test.go
@@ -1028,3 +1028,41 @@ func TestRest_Robots(t *testing.T) {
 		"Allow: /api/v1/list\nAllow: /api/v1/config\nAllow: /api/v1/user\nAllow: /api/v1/img\n"+
 		"Allow: /api/v1/avatar\nAllow: /api/v1/picture\n", body)
 }
+
+// TestRest_LoadPictureRejectsPathTraversal reproduces the unauthenticated path-traversal
+// vulnerability in GET /api/v1/picture/{user}/{id}. Before the fix, the handler concatenated
+// the URL params verbatim into a filesystem path via path.Join, so a request like
+// `/api/v1/picture/../remark.db` would resolve to `<base>/../remark.db`, escaping the image
+// directory. Even when the file did not exist (default Partitions=100 mitigates direct hits),
+// the FS error message leaked the constructed internal path back to the unauthenticated caller.
+func TestRest_LoadPictureRejectsPathTraversal(t *testing.T) {
+	ts, _, teardown := startupT(t)
+	defer teardown()
+
+	cases := []struct {
+		name string
+		path string
+	}{
+		{name: "dotdot in user segment", path: "/api/v1/picture/../remark.db"},
+		{name: "dotdot in id segment", path: "/api/v1/picture/dev_user/..%2Fremark.db"},
+		{name: "encoded dotdot in user segment", path: "/api/v1/picture/%2E%2E/remark.db"},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		t.Run(c.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, ts.URL+c.path, http.NoBody)
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			defer func() { _ = resp.Body.Close() }()
+
+			assert.Equal(t, http.StatusBadRequest, resp.StatusCode)
+			body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			s := string(body)
+			assert.NotContains(t, s, "..", "error body must not echo traversal marker")
+			assert.NotContains(t, s, "remark.db", "error body must not echo attacker-supplied filename")
+			assert.NotContains(t, s, "no such file", "error body must not leak filesystem state")
+			assert.NotContains(t, s, "/var/", "error body must not leak internal filesystem path")
+		})
+	}
+}