diff --git a/Projects/UOContent.Tests/Tests/Network/Bans/CrowdSecReporterTests.cs b/Projects/UOContent.Tests/Tests/Network/Bans/CrowdSecReporterTests.cs
index 937be3fb5..c6b83706f 100644
--- a/Projects/UOContent.Tests/Tests/Network/Bans/CrowdSecReporterTests.cs
+++ b/Projects/UOContent.Tests/Tests/Network/Bans/CrowdSecReporterTests.cs
@@ -160,6 +160,44 @@ public class CrowdSecReporterTests
         Assert.Equal(0, reporter.SendFailureCount);
     }
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Regression for the two shapes that made the drain task lie about the loop's lifetime.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <see cref="CrowdSecReporter.Start"/> hands the drain loop to <see cref="Task.Run(Func{Task})"/>,
+    /// and there is no <c>Task.Run(Func&lt;ValueTask&gt;)</c> overload — a ValueTask-returning drain loop
+    /// binds to <c>Task.Run&lt;TResult&gt;(Func&lt;TResult&gt;)</c> and yields a <c>Task&lt;ValueTask&gt;</c>
+    /// that completes at the first suspending await rather than when the loop exits, silently upcast by
+    /// the <see cref="Task"/> field. That turned <see cref="CrowdSecReporter.Stop"/>'s drain-exited
+    /// handshake into a no-op and let the shutdown flush read the <c>SingleReader</c> channel while the
+    /// drain loop was still reading it. Every other test here reaches Stop() without a Start(), so
+    /// nothing covered it.
+    /// <para>
+    /// Racing the drain against a delay is what separates the two shapes: with an empty queue the loop
+    /// parks on <c>WaitToReadAsync</c> forever, so a correctly unwrapped task cannot win that race, while
+    /// the <c>Task&lt;ValueTask&gt;</c> completed in ~0ms. A slow pool can only make this under-detect,
+    /// never fail spuriously.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task Start_DrainTaskSpansLoopLifetime_NotJustTheFirstAwait()
+    {
+        var reporter = new CrowdSecReporter(new NullAlertClient(), Settings());
+        using var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
+
+        reporter.Start(cts.Token);
+
+        var drain = reporter.DrainTaskForTesting;
+        Assert.NotNull(drain);
+
+        var first = await Task.WhenAny(drain, Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(500)));
+        Assert.False(ReferenceEquals(first, drain), "drain task completed while the loop was still running");
+
+        reporter.Stop();
+
+        Assert.True(drain.IsCompleted, "Stop() returned before the drain loop exited");
+    }
+
     private sealed class NullAlertClient : ICrowdSecAlertClient
     {
         public ValueTask PostAlertsAsync(IReadOnlyList<CrowdSecAlert> alerts, CancellationToken token) =>
diff --git a/Projects/UOContent/Misc/CrowdSec/CrowdSecReporter.cs b/Projects/UOContent/Misc/CrowdSec/CrowdSecReporter.cs
index 84cfbdf31..77334f02f 100644
--- a/Projects/UOContent/Misc/CrowdSec/CrowdSecReporter.cs
+++ b/Projects/UOContent/Misc/CrowdSec/CrowdSecReporter.cs
@@ -69,6 +69,12 @@ public sealed class CrowdSecReporter : IBanReporter
     /// </summary>
     public int SendFailureCount => _sendFailures;
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// The drain loop's task, so tests can observe its lifetime. It must stay incomplete until the loop
+    /// actually exits — see the note on <see cref="DrainLoop"/> for the shape that silently broke that.
+    /// </summary>
+    internal Task DrainTaskForTesting => _drainTask;
+
     public static void Configure()
     {
         BanChannel.Register(new CrowdSecReporter());