diff --git a/src/package_info.rs b/src/package_info.rs
index 5a743c3..368979c 100644
--- a/src/package_info.rs
+++ b/src/package_info.rs
@@ -417,7 +417,10 @@ async fn get(
                     }
                     Err(by_hash_error) => {
                         debug!("by-hash fetch of '{}' failed: {}", url, by_hash_error);
-                        return Err(release::VerifyError(verify_error).into());
+                        return Err(release::VerifyError(format!(
+                            "{verify_error}; the by-hash retry also failed: {by_hash_error}"
+                        ))
+                        .into());
                     }
                 }
             }
@@ -622,6 +625,9 @@ async fn fetch_index_by_hash(
         return Err(format!("HTTP {} for '{url}'", response.status()).into());
     }
     let data = response.bytes().await?.to_vec();
+    if data.is_empty() {
+        return Err(format!("empty body for '{url}'").into());
+    }
     verified.verify_file(rel_path, &data)?;
     Ok(data)
 }
@@ -646,6 +652,18 @@ async fn fetch_index_bytes(url: &str) -> Result<Vec<u8>, String> {
                     return Err(format!("HTTP {}", response.status()));
                 }
                 match response.bytes().await {
+                    Ok(bytes) if bytes.is_empty() => {
+                        // CDNs occasionally answer 200 with an empty body
+                        // under load: never a valid index, retry from scratch
+                        last_error = "server returned an empty body".to_string();
+                        log::debug!(
+                            "empty body for '{url}' (attempt {attempt}/{ATTEMPTS}), retrying"
+                        );
+                        tokio::time::sleep(
+                            std::time::Duration::from_millis(300 * u64::from(attempt)),
+                        )
+                        .await;
+                    }
                     Ok(bytes) => return Ok(bytes.to_vec()),
                     Err(e) => {
                         // Truncated or corrupted body: retry from scratch
@@ -924,6 +942,58 @@ pub async fn lookup(
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 
+    /// Serve canned byte responses on a local port, one per connection (the
+    /// last response repeats), and return the base URL
+    ///
+    /// The canned responses must use 'Connection: close' so the client opens
+    /// a fresh connection (and receives a fresh response) per request.
+    fn serve_responses(responses: Vec<Vec<u8>>) -> String {
+        use std::io::{Read, Write};
+        let listener = std::net::TcpListener::bind("127.0.0.1:0").unwrap();
+        let addr = listener.local_addr().unwrap();
+        std::thread::spawn(move || {
+            let mut served = 0usize;
+            for stream in listener.incoming().flatten() {
+                let index = served.min(responses.len() - 1);
+                served += 1;
+                let mut stream = stream;
+                // Drain the request first: closing with unread inbound data
+                // would send a TCP RST and destroy the response in flight
+                let mut buf = [0u8; 4096];
+                loop {
+                    match stream.read(&mut buf) {
+                        Ok(0) => break,
+                        Ok(n) if buf[..n].windows(4).any(|w| w == b"\r\n\r\n") => break,
+                        Ok(_) => continue,
+                        Err(_) => break,
+                    }
+                }
+                let _ = stream.write_all(&responses[index]);
+                let _ = stream.flush();
+            }
+        });
+        format!("http://{addr}/Sources.gz")
+    }
+
+    /// A CDN answering 200 with an empty body (observed under load) must be
+    /// retried instead of failing the index checksum verification
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn fetch_index_bytes_retries_empty_body() {
+        let valid = b"Package: hello\nVersion: 1.0\n\n";
+        let empty_response =
+            b"HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: 0\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n".to_vec();
+        let mut valid_response = format!(
+            "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\nContent-Length: {}\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n",
+            valid.len()
+        )
+        .into_bytes();
+        valid_response.extend_from_slice(valid);
+
+        let url = serve_responses(vec![empty_response, valid_response]);
+        let data = fetch_index_bytes(&url).await.unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(data, valid);
+    }
+
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn test_check_launchpad_repo() {
         // "hello" should exist on Launchpad for Ubuntu