diff --git a/docs/SUPPORTED-PACKAGES.md b/docs/SUPPORTED-PACKAGES.md
index 6f381e5..38b66e9 100644
--- a/docs/SUPPORTED-PACKAGES.md
+++ b/docs/SUPPORTED-PACKAGES.md
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ sha256sums=('SKIP'
 
 Upstream moves or renames a release, and the old URL now redirects to an HTML error or download page.
 
-**Detection:** `validate_source_urls()` sends a HEAD request to every URL in `source` and in each `source_<arch>` array. HTTP status 400 or above, or `Content-Type: text/html`, blocks the update.
+**Detection:** `validate_source_urls()` sends a HEAD request to every URL in `source` and in each `source_<arch>` array and follows up to 5 redirects. curl reports the status and the `Content-Type` of the last response. A status of 400 or above, a missing status, or `Content-Type: text/html` in any letter case blocks the update. The script does not parse the headers itself, because the server chose that text.
 
 **Why:** without this check, `updpkgsums` would hash the HTML page. The checksums would match and the package would fail to install.
 
diff --git a/scripts/lib.sh b/scripts/lib.sh
index e05943f..165cfc0 100644
--- a/scripts/lib.sh
+++ b/scripts/lib.sh
@@ -232,17 +232,28 @@ validate_source_urls() {
   while IFS= read -r url; do
     [[ -z "$url" ]] && continue
 
-    local headers http_code content_type
-    headers=$(curl -sIL --max-time 10 --max-redirs 5 "$url" 2>/dev/null) || {
+    # curl reports the status and type of the last response. The headers
+    # are text the server chose, and bash evaluates an operand of -ge as
+    # arithmetic, where an array subscript runs a command.
+    local response http_code content_type
+    response=$(curl -sIL -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{content_type}' \
+      --max-time 10 --max-redirs 5 "$url" 2>/dev/null) || {
       log_warn "Source URL unreachable: $url"
       errors=$((errors + 1))
       continue
     }
+    read -r http_code content_type <<<"$response"
+    content_type="${content_type%%;*}"
+    content_type="${content_type//[[:space:]]/}"
+    content_type="${content_type,,}"
 
-    http_code=$(grep -i "^HTTP/" <<<"$headers" | tail -1 | awk '{print $2}')
-    content_type=$(grep -i "^content-type:" <<<"$headers" | tail -1 | sed 's/^[^:]*: *//' | cut -d';' -f1 | tr -d '[:space:]')
+    if [[ ! "$http_code" =~ ^[0-9]{3}$ ]]; then
+      log_err "Source URL returned no HTTP status: $url"
+      errors=$((errors + 1))
+      continue
+    fi
 
-    if [[ "${http_code:-0}" -ge 400 ]]; then
+    if ((10#$http_code >= 400)); then
       log_err "Source URL returned HTTP $http_code: $url"
       errors=$((errors + 1))
       continue
diff --git a/tests/scripts.bats b/tests/scripts.bats
index 0dbae4f..7227f80 100644
--- a/tests/scripts.bats
+++ b/tests/scripts.bats
@@ -369,7 +369,7 @@ EOF
   cat >"$MOCK_DIR/curl" <<MOCKCURL
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 echo "\${@: -1}" >>"$TEST_TMPDIR/curl-urls.log"
-printf "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\ncontent-type: text/html; charset=utf-8\r\n"
+printf '200 text/html; charset=utf-8'
 MOCKCURL
   chmod +x "$MOCK_DIR/curl"
 
@@ -381,6 +381,60 @@ MOCKCURL
   grep -q "test-1.0.0-riscv64.tar.gz" "$TEST_TMPDIR/curl-urls.log"
 }
 
+# The server of a source chooses the headers. bash evaluates an operand of
+# -ge as arithmetic, and an array subscript there runs a command.
+@test "lib.sh: validate_source_urls runs nothing a source server sends" {
+  cat >"$TEST_TMPDIR/PKGBUILD" <<'EOF'
+pkgname=test-status
+pkgver=1.0.0
+pkgrel=1
+arch=('x86_64')
+source=("https://example.com/test-1.0.0.tar.gz")
+sha256sums=('abc123')
+EOF
+  # The payload in both places a status was read from: the first word of
+  # curl -w, and the status line of curl -I
+  cat >"$MOCK_DIR/curl" <<MOCKCURL
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+printf 'BASH_VERSINFO[\$(id>%s)] text/plain\n' "$TEST_TMPDIR/pwned"
+printf 'HTTP/1.1 BASH_VERSINFO[\$(id>%s)] OK\n' "$TEST_TMPDIR/pwned"
+MOCKCURL
+  chmod +x "$MOCK_DIR/curl"
+
+  # Called as update-pkg.sh calls it, where set -e does not apply
+  run bash -c 'source "$0/scripts/lib.sh"; validate_source_urls "$1" || exit $?' "$TEST_TMPDIR" "$TEST_TMPDIR/PKGBUILD"
+  [ ! -e "$TEST_TMPDIR/pwned" ]
+  [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
+}
+
+@test "lib.sh: validate_source_urls takes the status and type of the last response" {
+  cat >"$TEST_TMPDIR/PKGBUILD" <<'EOF'
+pkgname=test-status
+pkgver=1.0.0
+pkgrel=1
+arch=('x86_64')
+source=("https://example.com/test-1.0.0.tar.gz")
+sha256sums=('abc123')
+EOF
+  # curl -w prints what curl read from the last response
+  cat >"$MOCK_DIR/curl" <<'MOCKCURL'
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+[[ " $* " == *" -w %{http_code} %{content_type} "* ]] || exit 99
+printf '%s\n' "$CURL_W"
+MOCKCURL
+  chmod +x "$MOCK_DIR/curl"
+  local lib='source "$0/scripts/lib.sh"; validate_source_urls "$1" || exit $?'
+
+  CURL_W="200 application/octet-stream" run bash -c "$lib" "$TEST_TMPDIR" "$TEST_TMPDIR/PKGBUILD"
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  CURL_W="404 application/octet-stream" run bash -c "$lib" "$TEST_TMPDIR" "$TEST_TMPDIR/PKGBUILD"
+  [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
+  [[ "$output" == *"HTTP 404"* ]]
+  CURL_W="200 Text/HTML; charset=utf-8" run bash -c "$lib" "$TEST_TMPDIR" "$TEST_TMPDIR/PKGBUILD"
+  [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
+  [[ "$output" == *"HTML instead of"* ]]
+}
+
 # === validate_pkgver ===
 
 @test "lib.sh: validate_pkgver accepts versions the strategies produce" {
@@ -1223,7 +1277,7 @@ MOCKGIT
   cat > "$MOCK_DIR/curl" <<'MOCKCURL'
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 if [[ "$1" == "-sIL" ]]; then
-  printf "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\ncontent-type: text/html; charset=utf-8\r\n"
+  printf '200 text/html; charset=utf-8'
   exit 0
 fi
 # Default mock for other curl calls
@@ -1277,7 +1331,7 @@ MOCKGIT
   cat > "$MOCK_DIR/curl" <<'MOCKCURL'
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 if [[ "$1" == "-sIL" ]]; then
-  printf "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\ncontent-type: application/octet-stream\r\n"
+  printf '200 application/octet-stream'
   exit 0
 fi
 echo '{}'
@@ -1346,7 +1400,7 @@ MOCKGIT
   cat > "$MOCK_DIR/curl" <<'MOCKCURL'
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 if [[ "$1" == "-sIL" ]]; then
-  printf "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\ncontent-type: application/octet-stream\r\n"
+  printf '200 application/octet-stream'
   exit 0
 fi
 echo '{}'
@@ -1423,7 +1477,7 @@ MOCKGIT
   cat > "$MOCK_DIR/curl" <<'MOCKCURL'
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 if [[ "$1" == "-sIL" ]]; then
-  printf "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\ncontent-type: application/octet-stream\r\n"
+  printf '200 application/octet-stream'
   exit 0
 fi
 echo '{}'