diff --git a/extension/content.js b/extension/content.js
index c0400a9..c7f055e 100644
--- a/extension/content.js
+++ b/extension/content.js
@@ -56,6 +56,10 @@
     const platform = primary.platform;
     const kind = links.kind === "album" ? "album" : "artist";
     const noun = kind === "album" ? "album" : "artist";
+    // Re-validate the href scheme client-side: only http(s) becomes a clickable link.
+    // A swapped/compromised/buggy resolver could send a javascript:/data: url; never
+    // inject that into reddit's DOM. Returning null leaves the original text in place.
+    if (!Extract.isSafeHttpUrl(primary.url)) return null;
     const a = document.createElement("a");
     a.className = `rsl-link rsl-${platform} rsl-${kind}`;
     a.textContent = label;
@@ -80,7 +84,10 @@
     for (const m of ms) {
       if (m.index < last) continue; // skip overlaps
       if (m.index > last) frag.appendChild(document.createTextNode(text.slice(last, m.index)));
-      frag.appendChild(makeLink(text.substr(m.index, m.length), resolved.get(m.name)));
+      const matchText = text.substr(m.index, m.length);
+      const link = makeLink(matchText, resolved.get(m.name));
+      // makeLink returns null for an unsafe (non-http(s)) href: keep the plain text.
+      frag.appendChild(link || document.createTextNode(matchText));
       last = m.index + m.length;
     }
     if (last < text.length) frag.appendChild(document.createTextNode(text.slice(last)));
diff --git a/extension/extract.js b/extension/extract.js
index 5f5afa6..62399a2 100644
--- a/extension/extract.js
+++ b/extension/extract.js
@@ -119,5 +119,19 @@
     return all;
   }
 
-  return { matchesIn, cueMatchesIn, albumMatchesIn, allMatchesIn };
+  // True only for http/https URLs — reject javascript:, data:, garbage, empty.
+  // The resolver's url flows into an injected link's href, so the content script
+  // re-validates the scheme client-side before assigning it (defense in depth; the
+  // resolver already validates server-side, but a swapped/buggy one must not inject
+  // a javascript:/data: href into reddit's DOM).
+  function isSafeHttpUrl(u) {
+    try {
+      const p = new URL(u).protocol;
+      return p === "http:" || p === "https:";
+    } catch {
+      return false;
+    }
+  }
+
+  return { matchesIn, cueMatchesIn, albumMatchesIn, allMatchesIn, isSafeHttpUrl };
 });
diff --git a/extension/extract.test.cjs b/extension/extract.test.cjs
index 687ecbf..66eb8b9 100644
--- a/extension/extract.test.cjs
+++ b/extension/extract.test.cjs
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 // CJS so it can require() extract.js, which is a UMD script (also a content script).
 const { test } = require("node:test");
 const assert = require("node:assert/strict");
-const { matchesIn, cueMatchesIn, albumMatchesIn, allMatchesIn } = require("./extract.js");
+const { matchesIn, cueMatchesIn, albumMatchesIn, allMatchesIn, isSafeHttpUrl } = require("./extract.js");
 
 test("matchesIn finds Title-Case / ALL-CAPS runs, skips stopwords", () => {
   // Note: "and" is a connector, so "X and Y" greedily joins into one run (by design,
@@ -64,6 +64,21 @@ test("albumMatchesIn skips pure-number and too-short quotes", () => {
   assert.ok(!names.includes("X")); // length < 2
 });
 
+test("isSafeHttpUrl accepts http/https and rejects javascript/data/garbage/empty", () => {
+  // accepted: the only schemes a resolver link may inject as an href
+  assert.ok(isSafeHttpUrl("https://open.spotify.com/artist/abc"));
+  assert.ok(isSafeHttpUrl("http://localhost:8787/x"));
+  assert.ok(isSafeHttpUrl("https://www.google.com/search?q=Scum+bandcamp"));
+  // rejected: dangerous schemes + non-URLs
+  assert.ok(!isSafeHttpUrl("javascript:alert(1)"));
+  assert.ok(!isSafeHttpUrl("data:text/html,<script>alert(1)</script>"));
+  assert.ok(!isSafeHttpUrl("ftp://example.com/x"));
+  assert.ok(!isSafeHttpUrl("not a url"));
+  assert.ok(!isSafeHttpUrl(""));
+  assert.ok(!isSafeHttpUrl(null));
+  assert.ok(!isSafeHttpUrl(undefined));
+});
+
 test("allMatchesIn merges cue + Title-Case + album and sorts ascending by index", () => {
   const text = `Check out devourment and Cattle Decapitation; the album "Human Jerky" rules`;
   const ms = allMatchesIn(text);
diff --git a/service/resolver.js b/service/resolver.js
index cc5b13e..7f9cc28 100644
--- a/service/resolver.js
+++ b/service/resolver.js
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ async function spotifyToken() {
     method: "POST",
     headers: { authorization: `Basic ${auth}`, "content-type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" },
     body: "grant_type=client_credentials",
+    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5000), // fail fast on a hung upstream (caught per-candidate -> null)
   });
   if (!r.ok) throw new Error(`spotify token http ${r.status}`);
   const j = await r.json();
@@ -67,7 +68,10 @@ async function search(name) {
   if (!USE_SPOTIFY) return { artist: null, album: null };
   const token = await spotifyToken();
   const url = `https://api.spotify.com/v1/search?type=artist,album&limit=5&q=${encodeURIComponent(name)}`;
-  const r = await fetch(url, { headers: { authorization: `Bearer ${token}` } });
+  const r = await fetch(url, {
+    headers: { authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
+    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5000), // fail fast on a hung upstream (caught per-candidate -> null)
+  });
   if (!r.ok) throw new Error(`spotify search http ${r.status}`);
   const j = await r.json();
   return {
@@ -88,6 +92,7 @@ async function ollamaClassify(candidates) {
       format: "json",
       options: { temperature: 0 },
     }),
+    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5000), // fail fast on a hung upstream (caught per-candidate -> null)
   });
   if (!r.ok) throw new Error(`ollama http ${r.status}`);
   const j = await r.json();
@@ -119,8 +124,17 @@ const json = (res, code, obj) => {
   res.end(JSON.stringify(obj));
 };
 
+// CORS scoped to the extension origin: the background script sends
+// `Origin: moz-extension://<uuid>`; a page-context fetch (file://, sandboxed) can send
+// `Origin: null`. Reflect only those — never blanket `*` — so an arbitrary website the
+// user visits can't POST to localhost:8787 and read resolver results.
+const allowedOrigin = (origin) =>
+  typeof origin === "string" && (origin.startsWith("moz-extension://") || origin === "null");
+
 const server = createServer(async (req, res) => {
-  res.setHeader("access-control-allow-origin", "*");
+  const origin = req.headers.origin;
+  if (allowedOrigin(origin)) res.setHeader("access-control-allow-origin", origin);
+  res.setHeader("vary", "origin"); // the allow-origin header varies by request Origin
   res.setHeader("access-control-allow-headers", "content-type");
   res.setHeader("access-control-allow-methods", "GET, POST, OPTIONS");
   if (req.method === "OPTIONS") { res.writeHead(204); return res.end(); }