Your Flutter 404 Page Is Probably Crashing, and Your Server Is Probably Lying About It

Two separate technical reports highlight issues where 404 errors mask underlying system failures. One developer discovered their Flutter web app's 404 page was crashing before painting, while Firebase Hosting rewrites hid the true status code. Similarly, a user migrating to OIDC Trusted Publishing on npm encountered repeated release workflow failures. In both cases, the 404 responses were misleading, providing inaccurate error messages that complicated the debugging process for the respective developers.