diff --git a/lib/pleroma/reverse_proxy/client/hackney.ex b/lib/pleroma/reverse_proxy/client/hackney.ex
index 06b4de7df..948787497 100644
--- a/lib/pleroma/reverse_proxy/client/hackney.ex
+++ b/lib/pleroma/reverse_proxy/client/hackney.ex
@@ -149,9 +149,14 @@ defmodule Pleroma.ReverseProxy.Client.Hackney do
   # checked in, and parks in `connected` with no idle timeout, so it leaks
   # forever unless we stop it ourselves.
   defp pooled?(opts) do
-    is_nil(Keyword.get(opts, :proxy)) and use_pool?(Keyword.get(opts, :pool))
+    no_proxy?(Keyword.get(opts, :proxy)) and use_pool?(Keyword.get(opts, :pool))
   end
 
+  # Hackney reads `false` as "no proxy", same as an absent option.
+  defp no_proxy?(nil), do: true
+  defp no_proxy?(false), do: true
+  defp no_proxy?(_proxy), do: false
+
   defp use_pool?(false), do: false
   defp use_pool?(nil), do: Application.get_env(:hackney, :use_default_pool, true)
   defp use_pool?(_pool_name), do: true
diff --git a/test/pleroma/http/hackney_conn_leak_test.exs b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_conn_leak_test.exs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f83cad73d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_conn_leak_test.exs
@@ -0,0 +1,201 @@
+# Pleroma: A lightweight social networking server
+# Copyright © 2017-2022 Pleroma Authors <https://pleroma.social/>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
+
+# Regression guard for the Hackney dependency, not for Pleroma code.
+#
+# Hackney 4 leaks a `hackney_conn` gen_statem for an unpooled request that ends
+# without a reusable socket: a body cut short by the peer, a bodyless 204/304,
+# or a failed body read. `read_full_body/2` hands back `socket = undefined`, so
+# the connection goes straight to its `closed` state, bypassing the reuse check;
+# `closed(enter)` arms a stop timer only for pooled connections, and an unpooled
+# one is owned by `hackney_conn_sup`, so the owner-DOWN cleanup never fires
+# either. The process parks forever holding every refc binary it read.
+#
+# Pleroma cannot work around this: since 4.0 Hackney ignores `with_body` and
+# always returns a fully read binary, so a synchronous request never yields a
+# handle to close, and a truncated read still reports `{:ok, body}`.
+#
+# Media proxy warming hits this whenever an attachment fetch is cut short and
+# the outbound proxy is used as a CONNECT tunnel, since tunnels are never
+# pooled. That is how it was found.
+#
+# Fixed upstream by https://github.com/benoitc/hackney/pull/919; mix.exs pins
+# that commit until it lands in a release. Should this start failing, the pin
+# has been moved to a version without the fix.
+#
+# https://github.com/benoitc/hackney/issues/918
+defmodule Pleroma.HTTP.HackneyConnLeakTest do
+  use ExUnit.Case, async: false
+
+  alias Pleroma.HTTP.AdapterHelper.Hackney, as: HackneyAdapterHelper
+
+  @sent_bytes 64 * 1024
+  @announced_bytes 100_000_000
+
+  setup do
+    {:ok, _} = Application.ensure_all_started(:hackney)
+
+    {:ok, server} = start_server()
+    on_exit(fn -> stop_server(server) end)
+
+    {:ok, server: server}
+  end
+
+  test "an unpooled request with a truncated body does not leak a connection process", %{
+    server: server
+  } do
+    before = conn_pids()
+
+    # pool: false takes hackney's connect_direct/4 path, the same unpooled shape
+    # a CONNECT tunnel gets. A pooled connection is reaped by the pool's own
+    # grace timer and would not show the leak.
+    assert {:ok, %Tesla.Env{status: 200, body: body}} =
+             request(server, pool: false)
+
+    # The short read still reports success, which is why nothing downstream
+    # knows to clean up.
+    assert byte_size(body) == @sent_bytes
+
+    leaked = wait_for_cleanup(before)
+
+    assert leaked == [],
+           "leaked #{length(leaked)} hackney_conn process(es): " <>
+             inspect(Enum.map(leaked, &describe/1))
+  end
+
+  # A control rather than a guard: a pooled connection is stopped by the pool's
+  # own grace timer both before and after the fix. It is here to show the
+  # unpooled assertion above is measuring the right thing.
+  test "a pooled request with a truncated body does not leak either", %{server: server} do
+    before = conn_pids()
+
+    assert {:ok, %Tesla.Env{status: 200}} = request(server, pool: :media)
+
+    assert wait_for_cleanup(before) == []
+  end
+
+  defp request(server, extra_opts) do
+    url = "#{server.base_url}/truncated"
+
+    adapter_opts =
+      HackneyAdapterHelper.options([proxy: false] ++ extra_opts, URI.parse(url))
+
+    client = Tesla.client([], Tesla.Adapter.Hackney)
+
+    Tesla.request(client, method: :get, url: url, opts: [adapter: adapter_opts])
+  end
+
+  defp conn_pids do
+    :hackney_conn_sup
+    |> Process.whereis()
+    |> case do
+      nil ->
+        []
+
+      _ ->
+        for {_, pid, _, _} <- :supervisor.which_children(:hackney_conn_sup), is_pid(pid), do: pid
+    end
+    |> MapSet.new()
+  end
+
+  # Only connections this test created matter; the pool may add unrelated ones.
+  # A pooled connection gets a brief grace window before it stops, so poll
+  # rather than sampling once.
+  defp wait_for_cleanup(before, attempts \\ 40) do
+    leaked =
+      conn_pids()
+      |> Enum.reject(&MapSet.member?(before, &1))
+      |> Enum.filter(&Process.alive?/1)
+
+    cond do
+      leaked == [] -> []
+      attempts == 0 -> leaked
+      true -> Process.sleep(50) && wait_for_cleanup(before, attempts - 1)
+    end
+  end
+
+  defp describe(pid) do
+    state =
+      try do
+        pid |> :sys.get_state(200) |> elem(0)
+      rescue
+        _ -> :unknown
+      catch
+        :exit, _ -> :dead
+      end
+
+    binary =
+      case Process.info(pid, :binary) do
+        {:binary, refs} -> Enum.reduce(refs, 0, fn ref, acc -> acc + elem(ref, 1) end)
+        _ -> 0
+      end
+
+    %{pid: pid, state: state, binary_bytes: binary}
+  end
+
+  # Announces a body far larger than it sends, then closes: what an upstream
+  # aborting mid-stream looks like to the client.
+  defp start_server do
+    {:ok, listener} =
+      :gen_tcp.listen(0, [
+        :binary,
+        active: false,
+        packet: :raw,
+        reuseaddr: true,
+        ip: {127, 0, 0, 1}
+      ])
+
+    {:ok, {{127, 0, 0, 1}, port}} = :inet.sockname(listener)
+    {:ok, acceptor} = Task.start(fn -> accept_loop(listener) end)
+
+    {:ok, %{listener: listener, acceptor: acceptor, base_url: "http://127.0.0.1:#{port}"}}
+  end
+
+  # Closing the listener makes the blocked accept/1 return {:error, :closed},
+  # which ends the loop.
+  defp stop_server(%{listener: listener, acceptor: acceptor}) do
+    :ok = :gen_tcp.close(listener)
+    if Process.alive?(acceptor), do: Process.exit(acceptor, :kill)
+  end
+
+  defp accept_loop(listener) do
+    case :gen_tcp.accept(listener) do
+      {:ok, socket} ->
+        serve(socket)
+        accept_loop(listener)
+
+      {:error, _} ->
+        :ok
+    end
+  end
+
+  defp serve(socket) do
+    with {:ok, _data} <- recv_headers(socket) do
+      :gen_tcp.send(socket, [
+        "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n",
+        "Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n",
+        "Content-Length: #{@announced_bytes}\r\n\r\n",
+        :binary.copy("x", @sent_bytes)
+      ])
+    end
+
+    :gen_tcp.close(socket)
+  end
+
+  defp recv_headers(socket, acc \\ <<>>) do
+    case :gen_tcp.recv(socket, 0, 1_000) do
+      {:ok, data} ->
+        acc = acc <> data
+
+        cond do
+          :binary.match(acc, "\r\n\r\n") != :nomatch -> {:ok, acc}
+          byte_size(acc) > 8_192 -> {:error, :too_large}
+          true -> recv_headers(socket, acc)
+        end
+
+      {:error, _} = error ->
+        error
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/test/pleroma/http/hackney_follow_redirect_regression_test.exs b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_follow_redirect_regression_test.exs
index af0f2002b..d9c285944 100644
--- a/test/pleroma/http/hackney_follow_redirect_regression_test.exs
+++ b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_follow_redirect_regression_test.exs
@@ -221,9 +221,12 @@ defmodule Pleroma.HTTP.HackneyFollowRedirectRegressionTest do
     Pleroma.ReverseProxy.Client.Hackney.close(client)
   end
 
+  # proxy: false so a proxy in the build environment cannot turn these into
+  # tunnelled requests, which are never pooled and would defeat the point.
   defp direct_opts(tls_server) do
     [
       pool: :media,
+      proxy: false,
       ssl_options: tls_client_options(tls_server),
       connect_timeout: 1_000,
       recv_timeout: 1_000,
diff --git a/test/pleroma/http/hackney_max_body_regression_test.exs b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_max_body_regression_test.exs
index 4e533c53f..26de0e021 100644
--- a/test/pleroma/http/hackney_max_body_regression_test.exs
+++ b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_max_body_regression_test.exs
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ defmodule Pleroma.HTTP.HackneyMaxBodyRegressionTest do
   defp request(url, extra_opts) do
     adapter_opts =
       HackneyAdapterHelper.options(
-        [pool: :media, no_proxy_env: true] ++ extra_opts,
+        [pool: :media, proxy: false] ++ extra_opts,
         URI.parse(url)
       )
 
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ defmodule Pleroma.HTTP.HackneyMaxBodyRegressionTest do
 
     adapter_opts =
       HackneyAdapterHelper.options(
-        [pool: :media, no_proxy_env: true, max_body: 1024],
+        [pool: :media, proxy: false, max_body: 1024],
         URI.parse(url)
       )
 
diff --git a/test/pleroma/http/hackney_redirect_regression_test.exs b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_redirect_regression_test.exs
index 61389aa7e..02d8f1ef3 100644
--- a/test/pleroma/http/hackney_redirect_regression_test.exs
+++ b/test/pleroma/http/hackney_redirect_regression_test.exs
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ defmodule Pleroma.HTTP.HackneyRedirectRegressionTest do
 
     adapter_opts =
       HackneyAdapterHelper.options(
-        [pool: :media, follow_redirect: false, no_proxy_env: true],
+        [pool: :media, follow_redirect: false, proxy: false],
         uri
       )