diff --git a/core/config.php b/core/config.php
index ca667924..1b030d6f 100644
--- a/core/config.php
+++ b/core/config.php
@@ -214,7 +214,9 @@ abstract class BaseConfig implements Config
     public function get_string(string $name, ?string $default=null): ?string
     {
         $val = $this->get($name, $default);
-        if(!is_string($val) && !is_null($val)) throw new SCoreException("$name is not a string: $val");
+        if (!is_string($val) && !is_null($val)) {
+            throw new SCoreException("$name is not a string: $val");
+        }
         return $val;
     }
 
diff --git a/core/util.php b/core/util.php
index cf30650b..4e3c333b 100644
--- a/core/util.php
+++ b/core/util.php
@@ -208,6 +208,10 @@ function transload(string $url, string $mfile): ?array
         curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
 
         $response = curl_exec($ch);
+        if ($response === false) {
+            log_warning("core-util", "Failed to transload $url");
+            throw new SCoreException("Failed to fetch $url");
+        }
 
         $header_size = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HEADER_SIZE);
         $headers = http_parse_headers(implode("\n", preg_split('/\R/', rtrim(substr($response, 0, $header_size)))));