diff --git a/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion.py b/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion.py
index 8956828684..fa88706e25 100644
--- a/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion.py
+++ b/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion.py
@@ -1215,12 +1215,17 @@ class DiffusionBackend:
         cn_model = self._cn_models.get(resolved_cn.id)
         if cn_model is None:
             if cancel.is_set():
-                raise RuntimeError("Diffusion generation was cancelled.")
+                raise RuntimeError(DIFFUSION_CANCELLED_MSG)
             cn_model = (
                 getattr(diffusers, model_cls_name)
                 .from_pretrained(resolved_cn.path, torch_dtype = state.dtype, token = state.hf_token)
                 .to(state.device)
             )
+            if cancel.is_set():
+                # An unload raced the blocking download above and already cleared the
+                # ControlNet caches; caching now would pin the module past the unload.
+                del cn_model
+                raise RuntimeError(DIFFUSION_CANCELLED_MSG)
             self._cn_models[resolved_cn.id] = cn_model
         key = (pipe_cls_name, resolved_cn.id)
         pipe = self._cn_pipes.get(key)
diff --git a/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion_controlnet.py b/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion_controlnet.py
index 22a936daac..bf103a9206 100644
--- a/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion_controlnet.py
+++ b/studio/backend/core/inference/diffusion_controlnet.py
@@ -162,8 +162,11 @@ def resolve_controlnet(
             raise ValueError(f"ControlNet '{spec_id}' has no repo")
         return ResolvedControlNet(spec_id, entry.repo_id, is_local = False)
 
-    # A bare public HF repo id (owner/name).
-    if "/" in spec_id and " " not in spec_id:
+    # A bare public HF repo id (owner/name). STRICT shape -- exactly one slash and
+    # alphanumeric-leading segments -- so a filesystem-looking id (/tmp/x, ../x, ~/x,
+    # C:\x) can never reach from_pretrained, which would happily treat it as a local
+    # directory and bypass the controlnets_dir() no-raw-path contract.
+    if re.fullmatch(r"[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9_.-]*/[A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9_.-]*", spec_id):
         return ResolvedControlNet(spec_id, spec_id, is_local = False)
 
     raise FileNotFoundError(
diff --git a/studio/backend/tests/test_diffusion_controlnet.py b/studio/backend/tests/test_diffusion_controlnet.py
index 9c978a483c..f9f3d5bd36 100644
--- a/studio/backend/tests/test_diffusion_controlnet.py
+++ b/studio/backend/tests/test_diffusion_controlnet.py
@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@ def test_resolve_controlnet_catalog_bare_repo_and_unknown():
         dc.resolve_controlnet("not-a-known-id")
 
 
+def test_resolve_controlnet_rejects_filesystem_like_ids():
+    # The bare-repo fallback must never accept a path-shaped id: from_pretrained
+    # would treat it as a local directory, bypassing the controlnets_dir() contract.
+    for bad in ("/tmp/model", "../some/model", "./x/y", "~/x/y", "a/b/c", "C:\\x/y", ".hidden/x"):
+        with pytest.raises(FileNotFoundError):
+            dc.resolve_controlnet(bad)
+
+
 def test_resolve_controlnet_local(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
     d = tmp_path / "controlnets"
     d.mkdir()