diff --git a/distribution/pull_v2.go b/distribution/pull_v2.go
index 0bef24d5f4..fdb2672d08 100644
--- a/distribution/pull_v2.go
+++ b/distribution/pull_v2.go
@@ -604,14 +604,12 @@ func (p *puller) pullSchema1(ctx context.Context, ref reference.Reference, unver
 }
 
 func checkSupportedMediaType(mediaType string) error {
-	supportedMediaTypes := []string{
-		"application/vnd.oci.image.",
-		"application/vnd.docker.",
-	}
-
 	lowerMt := strings.ToLower(mediaType)
 	for _, mt := range supportedMediaTypes {
-		if strings.HasPrefix(lowerMt, mt) {
+		// The should either be an exact match, or have a valid prefix
+		// we append a "." when matching prefixes to exclude "false positives";
+		// for example, we don't want to match "application/vnd.oci.images_are_fun_yolo".
+		if lowerMt == mt || strings.HasPrefix(lowerMt, mt+".") {
 			return nil
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/distribution/registry.go b/distribution/registry.go
index 36d3a42ca0..d656de400b 100644
--- a/distribution/registry.go
+++ b/distribution/registry.go
@@ -20,6 +20,22 @@ import (
 )
 
 var (
+	// supportedMediaTypes represents acceptable media-type(-prefixes)
+	// we use this list to prevent obscure errors when trying to pull
+	// OCI artifacts.
+	supportedMediaTypes = []string{
+		// valid prefixes
+		"application/vnd.oci.image",
+		"application/vnd.docker",
+
+		// these types may occur on old images, and are copied from
+		// defaultImageTypes below.
+		"application/octet-stream",
+		"application/json",
+		"text/html",
+		"",
+	}
+
 	// defaultImageTypes represents the schema2 config types for images
 	defaultImageTypes = []string{
 		schema2.MediaTypeImageConfig,