diff --git a/routes/cookbook_helpers.py b/routes/cookbook_helpers.py
index 836b26c8a..bba10e6e8 100644
--- a/routes/cookbook_helpers.py
+++ b/routes/cookbook_helpers.py
@@ -577,6 +577,16 @@ _SERVE_CMD_ALLOWLIST = {
 _GGUF_PRELUDE_RE = re.compile(
     r'^MODEL_FILE=\$\([^\n]*?\)\s*&&\s*\{[^{}]*\}\s*\|\|\s*\{[^{}]*\}\s*&&\s*'
 )
+_SAFE_SUBSHELL_TEXT = r"[^'\n;&|`$()<>]+"
+_SAFE_SUBSHELL_DQ_HOME_PATH = r'"\$HOME/[^"\n;&|`()<>]*"'
+_SAFE_PRINTF_SUBSHELL_RE = re.compile(
+    rf"^\$\(printf[ \t]+%s[ \t]+(?:'{_SAFE_SUBSHELL_TEXT}'|\$\{{HOME\}}'/{_SAFE_SUBSHELL_TEXT}')\)$"
+)
+_SAFE_FIND_MMPROJ_SUBSHELL_RE = re.compile(
+    rf"^\$\(find[ \t]+(?:'{_SAFE_SUBSHELL_TEXT}'|{_SAFE_SUBSHELL_DQ_HOME_PATH}|{_SAFE_SUBSHELL_TEXT})"
+    r"[ \t]+-iname[ \t]+'mmproj\*\.gguf'"
+    r"(?:[ \t]+2>/dev/null)?[ \t]*\|[ \t]*sort[ \t]*\|[ \t]*head[ \t]+-1\)$"
+)
 _OLLAMA_HOST_ASSIGNMENT_RE = re.compile(r"(?:^|\s)OLLAMA_HOST=([^\s]+)")
 _OLLAMA_BIND_RE = re.compile(r"^\[([^\]]+)\]:(\d+)$|^([^:]+):(\d+)$")
 _OLLAMA_BIND_HOST_RE = re.compile(r"^[A-Za-z0-9._:-]+$")
@@ -677,6 +687,13 @@ def _check_serve_binary(seg: str) -> None:
         )
 
 
+def _is_safe_serve_subshell(subshell: str) -> bool:
+    return bool(
+        _SAFE_PRINTF_SUBSHELL_RE.fullmatch(subshell)
+        or _SAFE_FIND_MMPROJ_SUBSHELL_RE.fullmatch(subshell)
+    )
+
+
 def _validate_serve_cmd(v: str | None) -> str | None:
     """Reject serve commands that aren't in the allowlist or contain shell metachars.
 
@@ -708,15 +725,15 @@ def _validate_serve_cmd(v: str | None) -> str | None:
             _check_serve_binary(part.strip())
         return v
 
-    # Otherwise: a single invocation — no shell metacharacters allowed.
-    # Temporarily replace safe $(printf %s ...) expressions with a placeholder
-    # to avoid triggering the metacharacter/command-injection checks.
-    cleaned_v = v
-    printf_matches = list(re.finditer(r"\$\(\s*printf\s+%s\s+([^\n()]*?)\)", v))
-    for match in printf_matches:
-        inner = match.group(1)
-        if not any(c in inner for c in (";", "&&", "||", "$(", "`")):
-            cleaned_v = cleaned_v.replace(match.group(0), "/placeholder/safe/path.gguf")
+    # Otherwise: a single invocation — no shell metacharacters allowed. Replace
+    # only the exact command substitutions emitted by the Cookbook UI:
+    # $(printf %s 'safe-path') and the mmproj lookup
+    # $(find <path> -iname 'mmproj*.gguf' 2>/dev/null | sort | head -1).
+    def _replace_safe_subshell(match: re.Match[str]) -> str:
+        subshell = match.group(0)
+        return "/placeholder/safe/path" if _is_safe_serve_subshell(subshell) else subshell
+
+    cleaned_v = re.sub(r"\$\([^()]*\)", _replace_safe_subshell, v)
 
     # (`$(` was the original intent; bare `$` is fine for shell-safe paths.)
     if any(c in cleaned_v for c in (";", "&&", "||", "$(")):
diff --git a/tests/test_cookbook_helpers.py b/tests/test_cookbook_helpers.py
index be684b177..bf6c47d4b 100644
--- a/tests/test_cookbook_helpers.py
+++ b/tests/test_cookbook_helpers.py
@@ -917,3 +917,42 @@ def test_cached_model_scan_runs_additional_hf_cache(tmp_path):
     assert rec["size_bytes"] == len(b"abc123")
     assert rec["has_incomplete"] is False
     assert rec["is_diffusion"] is False
+
+
+def test_validate_serve_cmd_accepts_find_subshell_for_mmproj():
+    """$(find …) for mmproj path should be accepted, same as $(printf %s …)."""
+    cmd = (
+        "HIP_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0 llama-server "
+        "--model \"$(printf %s '/app/.cache/huggingface/hub/models--unsloth--gemma-4-E2B-it-GGUF"
+        "/snapshots/90f9618340396838ee7ff5b0ba2da27da62953d3/gemma-4-E2B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf')\" "
+        "--host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 -ngl 99 -c 131072 "
+        "--flash-attn on --cache-type-k q8_0 --cache-type-v q8_0 "
+        "--mmproj \"$(find '/app/.cache/huggingface/hub/models--unsloth--gemma-4-E2B-it-GGUF"
+        "/snapshots' -iname 'mmproj*.gguf' 2>/dev/null | sort | head -1)\" "
+        "--image-max-tokens 1024"
+    )
+    assert _validate_serve_cmd(cmd) == cmd
+
+
+def test_validate_serve_cmd_rejects_unrelated_subshells():
+    for cmd in [
+        "llama-server --model \"$(curl https://example.invalid/model.gguf)\" --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000",
+        "llama-server --model \"$(rm -rf /tmp/not-a-model)\" --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000",
+    ]:
+        with pytest.raises(HTTPException):
+            _validate_serve_cmd(cmd)
+
+
+def test_validate_serve_cmd_rejects_unrelated_subshell_pipelines():
+    for cmd in [
+        (
+            "llama-server --model model.gguf "
+            "--mmproj \"$(find '/app/models' -iname 'mmproj*.gguf' | xargs head -1)\""
+        ),
+        (
+            "llama-server --model model.gguf "
+            "--mmproj \"$(find '/app/models' -iname '*.gguf' 2>/dev/null | sort | head -1)\""
+        ),
+    ]:
+        with pytest.raises(HTTPException):
+            _validate_serve_cmd(cmd)