diff --git a/apps/server/src/services/__tests__/web_tools.test.ts b/apps/server/src/services/__tests__/web_tools.test.ts
index 2b00ae1..1b0583f 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/services/__tests__/web_tools.test.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/services/__tests__/web_tools.test.ts
@@ -170,6 +170,28 @@ describe('executeWebSearch', () => {
     expect(out.results).toHaveLength(1);
     expect(out.results[0]!.url).toBe('https://ok/');
   });
+
+  it('uses the injected fetcher when one is passed (v1.11.8 review)', async () => {
+    // Direct injection vs vi.spyOn(globalThis, 'fetch'): the injected
+    // path lets tests run without monkey-patching globals, and the
+    // production code path defaults to global fetch when no fetcher is
+    // supplied. Asserts the stub is the thing actually called.
+    const globalSpy = vi.spyOn(globalThis, 'fetch');
+    const stub = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(
+      mockResponse(
+        { results: [{ title: 'injected', url: 'https://inj/', content: 's' }] },
+        { contentType: 'application/json' },
+      ),
+    );
+    const out = await executeWebSearch(
+      { query: 'q' },
+      TEST_SEARXNG,
+      stub as unknown as typeof fetch,
+    );
+    expect(stub).toHaveBeenCalledOnce();
+    expect(globalSpy).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(out.results[0]!.url).toBe('https://inj/');
+  });
 });
 
 // ============================================================================
@@ -269,6 +291,29 @@ describe('executeWebFetch — size + truncation', () => {
     expect('error' in result && result.error).toBe('response_too_large');
   });
 
+  it('rejects multi-byte content that exceeds 5MB in bytes but fits in chars (v1.11.8 review)', async () => {
+    // 1.5M U+1F600 emojis: each is length 2 in UTF-16 (surrogate pair) and
+    // 4 bytes in UTF-8. body.length = 3,000,000 chars (~2.86 MiB by
+    // UTF-16 count) but Buffer.byteLength = 6,000,000 bytes (>5 MiB).
+    // Pre-fix the char-count comparison let this through; the byte-count
+    // check now rejects. No Content-Length header so the pre-flight
+    // guard doesn't fire — we're testing the POST-consumption check.
+    const heavy = '😀'.repeat(1_500_000);
+    const fakeFetch = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(
+      new Response(heavy, { status: 200, headers: { 'content-type': 'text/plain' } }),
+    );
+    const result = await executeWebFetch(
+      { url: 'https://example.com/multibyte' },
+      fakeFetch as unknown as typeof fetch,
+    );
+    expect('error' in result).toBe(true);
+    if ('error' in result) {
+      expect(result.error).toBe('response_too_large');
+      // Error reason should reference bytes, not character count.
+      expect(result.reason).toMatch(/bytes/);
+    }
+  });
+
   it('truncates output to max_chars and appends a marker', async () => {
     const big = 'A'.repeat(50_000);
     const fakeFetch = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(
diff --git a/apps/server/src/services/web_fetch.ts b/apps/server/src/services/web_fetch.ts
index 9dac95e..09f8bc8 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/services/web_fetch.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/services/web_fetch.ts
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ export async function executeWebFetch(
   try {
     const res = await fetcher(input.url, {
       signal: controller.signal,
+      // TODO(v1.11.9): redirect: 'manual' + re-run isPublicUrl on Location header.
+      // Current 'follow' allows redirect-to-private-IP bypass of URL guard.
       redirect: 'follow',
       headers: { 'User-Agent': 'BooCode/1.11.8', Accept: 'text/html,text/plain,application/json,*/*' },
     });
@@ -107,8 +109,13 @@ export async function executeWebFetch(
     // about length AND streams gigabytes would defeat that; for v1.11.8
     // the 15s timeout is the secondary fence.
     const body = await res.text();
-    if (body.length > MAX_BYTES) {
-      return { error: 'response_too_large', reason: `body ${body.length} > ${MAX_BYTES}` };
+    // v1.11.8 review: byte-count, not char-count. A 5MB cap on
+    // body.length (UTF-16 code units) lets a multi-byte payload (emoji,
+    // CJK) pass when its wire size already exceeded MAX_BYTES. Compute
+    // once and reuse for the error message.
+    const bodyBytes = Buffer.byteLength(body, 'utf8');
+    if (bodyBytes > MAX_BYTES) {
+      return { error: 'response_too_large', reason: `body ${bodyBytes} bytes > ${MAX_BYTES}` };
     }
 
     let textRaw: string;
diff --git a/apps/server/src/services/web_search.ts b/apps/server/src/services/web_search.ts
index 4660d65..7ce25fc 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/services/web_search.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/services/web_search.ts
@@ -35,16 +35,19 @@ export interface WebSearchOutput {
 // with a mocked fetch. Throws on network / non-200 — the executeToolCall
 // wrapper in inference.ts turns the thrown message into the LLM-visible
 // error string.
+// v1.11.8 review: fetcher injection. Mirrors executeWebFetch's signature
+// so tests can pass a vi.fn() stub without monkey-patching globalThis.
 export async function executeWebSearch(
   input: WebSearchInputT,
   searxngUrl: string,
+  fetcher: typeof fetch = fetch,
 ): Promise<WebSearchOutput> {
   const cap = Math.min(Math.max(1, input.max_results ?? DEFAULT_RESULTS), MAX_RESULTS_CAP);
   const url = `${searxngUrl}/search?q=${encodeURIComponent(input.query)}&format=json`;
   const controller = new AbortController();
   const timer = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), FETCH_TIMEOUT_MS);
   try {
-    const res = await fetch(url, {
+    const res = await fetcher(url, {
       signal: controller.signal,
       headers: { 'User-Agent': 'BooCode/1.11.8' },
     });