diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 34337cb..b989057 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ Deprecated
 Fixed
 -----
 
+- When downloading an automation script fail with non-zero status code instead of returning an HTML document when the remote HTTP server fails to deliver the document.
+
 Removed
 -------
 
diff --git a/configs/releng/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh b/configs/releng/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh
index 0d95012..f7f3ced 100755
--- a/configs/releng/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh
+++ b/configs/releng/airootfs/root/.automated_script.sh
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ automated_script() {
                 sleep 1
             done
             printf '%s: downloading %s\n' "$0" "${script}"
-            curl "${script}" --location --retry-connrefused --retry 10 -s -o /tmp/startup_script
+            curl "${script}" --location --retry-connrefused --retry 10 --fail -s -o /tmp/startup_script
             rt=$?
         else
             cp "${script}" /tmp/startup_script