diff --git a/backend/windmill-api/src/triggers/http/handler.rs b/backend/windmill-api/src/triggers/http/handler.rs
index 20f2f96add..6e05651dba 100644
--- a/backend/windmill-api/src/triggers/http/handler.rs
+++ b/backend/windmill-api/src/triggers/http/handler.rs
@@ -57,8 +57,19 @@ fn cors_lookup_method(req: &axum::extract::Request) -> Option<HttpMethod> {
             .and_then(|method| method.to_str().ok())
             .and_then(|method| http::Method::try_from(method).ok())
             .as_ref()
-            .and_then(|method| HttpMethod::try_from(method).ok())
-    } else if method == http::Method::HEAD {
+            .and_then(routable_method)
+    } else {
+        routable_method(method)
+    }
+}
+
+/// The router key a request method maps to. `HEAD` resolves the `GET` route it
+/// mirrors, and does so for a preflight naming it too: browsers send
+/// `Access-Control-Request-Method: HEAD` when the HEAD carries a non-safelisted
+/// header, and answering that preflight from a different route than the request
+/// itself resolves is how the two come to disagree.
+fn routable_method(method: &http::Method) -> Option<HttpMethod> {
+    if method == http::Method::HEAD {
         Some(HttpMethod::Get)
     } else {
         HttpMethod::try_from(method).ok()
diff --git a/backend/windmill-trigger-http/src/lib.rs b/backend/windmill-trigger-http/src/lib.rs
index e9ad7238ef..6a43db2e92 100644
--- a/backend/windmill-trigger-http/src/lib.rs
+++ b/backend/windmill-trigger-http/src/lib.rs
@@ -224,12 +224,18 @@ pub struct RouteExists {
 pub fn effective_allowed_origins(
     route_allowed_origins: Option<&Vec<String>>,
 ) -> Option<Vec<String>> {
-    let effective = match route_allowed_origins {
-        Some(route_allowed_origins) => route_allowed_origins.clone(),
-        None => HTTP_ROUTE_DEFAULT_ALLOWED_ORIGINS.load().as_ref().clone(),
-    };
-
-    (!effective.is_empty() && !allows_any_origin(&effective)).then_some(effective)
+    match route_allowed_origins {
+        // `*` is the opt-out, including out of a stricter instance default.
+        Some(list) if allows_any_origin(list) => None,
+        // Any other stored list restricts, an empty one included: it allows no
+        // origin at all. Falling back to the default here would make `[]` more
+        // permissive than `NULL`, which is the wrong direction to fail in.
+        Some(list) => Some(list.clone()),
+        None => {
+            let default = HTTP_ROUTE_DEFAULT_ALLOWED_ORIGINS.load().as_ref().clone();
+            (!default.is_empty() && !allows_any_origin(&default)).then_some(default)
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 /// Resolve the `Access-Control-Allow-Origin` value for a request, or `None` to
@@ -665,8 +671,10 @@ mod tests {
         // historical permissive behaviour is kept.
         assert_eq!(effective_allowed_origins(None), None);
         // An empty route list is a restriction that matches nothing, distinct
-        // from `NULL` which inherits the instance default.
-        assert_eq!(effective_allowed_origins(Some(&vec![])), None);
+        // from `NULL` which inherits the instance default. It must never come
+        // back as `None`, which the middleware reads as "any origin".
+        assert_eq!(effective_allowed_origins(Some(&vec![])), Some(vec![]));
+        assert_eq!(match_origin(&[], Some(&origin("https://a.com"))), None);
     }
 
     #[test]
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/triggers/http/RouteCorsOption.svelte b/frontend/src/lib/components/triggers/http/RouteCorsOption.svelte
index eb3eec2174..1a79eb8f63 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/triggers/http/RouteCorsOption.svelte
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/triggers/http/RouteCorsOption.svelte
@@ -36,6 +36,10 @@
 	// shows before saving rather than as a 400 from the API.
 	function originError(origin: string): string | undefined {
 		if (origin === '*') return undefined
+		// An Origin header is always visible ASCII, so this covers both embedded
+		// whitespace and a non-punycoded IDN, which the backend rejects too.
+		if (!/^[\x21-\x7e]+$/.test(origin))
+			return `'${origin}' must contain only visible ASCII, with no whitespace`
 		const [scheme, ...rest] = origin.split('://')
 		if (rest.length !== 1) return `'${origin}' is missing a scheme, such as https://`
 		const host = rest[0]