diff --git a/plugin-server/src/worker/ingestion/event-pipeline/populateTeamDataStep.ts b/plugin-server/src/worker/ingestion/event-pipeline/populateTeamDataStep.ts
index de63033393f46..042eb197122a3 100644
--- a/plugin-server/src/worker/ingestion/event-pipeline/populateTeamDataStep.ts
+++ b/plugin-server/src/worker/ingestion/event-pipeline/populateTeamDataStep.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { PluginEvent } from '@posthog/plugin-scaffold'
 
 import { eventDroppedCounter } from '../../../main/ingestion-queues/metrics'
 import { PipelineEvent } from '../../../types'
+import { sanitizeString } from '../../../utils/db/utils'
 import { UUID } from '../../../utils/utils'
 import { captureIngestionWarning } from '../utils'
 import { tokenOrTeamPresentCounter } from './metrics'
@@ -42,6 +43,9 @@ export async function populateTeamDataStep(
     } else if (event.team_id) {
         team = await runner.hub.teamManager.fetchTeam(event.team_id)
     } else if (event.token) {
+        // HACK: we've had null bytes end up in the token in the ingest pipeline before, for some reason. We should try to
+        // prevent this generally, but if it happens, we should at least simply fail to lookup the team, rather than crashing
+        event.token = sanitizeString(event.token)
         team = await runner.hub.teamManager.getTeamByToken(event.token)
     }
 
diff --git a/rust/capture/src/token.rs b/rust/capture/src/token.rs
index 7924cc9511485..3e7d99c333a7f 100644
--- a/rust/capture/src/token.rs
+++ b/rust/capture/src/token.rs
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ pub enum InvalidTokenReason {
     TooLong,
     NotAscii,
     PersonalApiKey,
+    NullByte,
 }
 
 impl InvalidTokenReason {
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ impl InvalidTokenReason {
             // Self::IsNotString => "not_string",
             Self::TooLong => "too_long",
             Self::PersonalApiKey => "personal_api_key",
+            Self::NullByte => "null_byte",
         }
     }
 }
@@ -57,6 +59,11 @@ pub fn validate_token(token: &str) -> Result<(), InvalidTokenReason> {
         return Err(InvalidTokenReason::PersonalApiKey);
     }
 
+    // We refuse tokens with null bytes
+    if token.contains('\0') {
+        return Err(InvalidTokenReason::NullByte);
+    }
+
     Ok(())
 }
 
@@ -96,4 +103,12 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(valid.is_err());
         assert_eq!(valid.unwrap_err(), InvalidTokenReason::PersonalApiKey);
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn blocks_null_byte() {
+        let valid = validate_token("hello\0there");
+
+        assert!(valid.is_err());
+        assert_eq!(valid.unwrap_err(), InvalidTokenReason::NullByte);
+    }
 }