diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 25b44ef872..1e130bf0a9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 - minor improvements to "add second device" dialog #3748
 - Remove deprecated translations #3756
 - Refactor chat store into React context #3725
-- Improve security: restrict file protocol #3769 #3798
+- Improve security: restrict file protocol #3769 #3798 #3800
 - Update `deltachat-node` and `deltachat/jsonrpc-client` to `v1.137.3`
 - Change chatlist to use new chatlist changed event from core #3268
 - Refactor QR code reader #3762
diff --git a/src/main/ipc.ts b/src/main/ipc.ts
index 13f1642db2..26bc9bb601 100644
--- a/src/main/ipc.ts
+++ b/src/main/ipc.ts
@@ -118,11 +118,13 @@ export async function init(cwd: string, logHandler: LogHandler) {
     ev.returnValue = app.getPath(arg)
   })
 
-  ipcMain.handle('fileChooser', (_ev, options) => {
+  ipcMain.handle('fileChooser', async (_ev, options) => {
     if (!mainWindow.window) {
       throw new Error('window does not exist, this should never happen')
     }
-    return dialog.showOpenDialog(mainWindow.window, options)
+    const returnValue = await dialog.showOpenDialog(mainWindow.window, options)
+    mainWindow.window.filePathWhiteList.push(...returnValue.filePaths)
+    return returnValue
   })
 
   let lastSaveDialogLocation: string | undefined = undefined
diff --git a/src/main/windows/main.ts b/src/main/windows/main.ts
index 9b4b42e675..f8ba502a44 100644
--- a/src/main/windows/main.ts
+++ b/src/main/windows/main.ts
@@ -26,7 +26,16 @@ import { fileURLToPath } from 'url'
 
 const log = getLogger('main/mainWindow')
 
-export let window: (BrowserWindow & { hidden?: boolean }) | null = null
+type ExtendedBrowserWindow = BrowserWindow & {
+  hidden?: boolean
+  /**
+   * whitelist of file paths that user selected that the UI should be able to also load via the file:/// scheme
+   * example: when changing avatar, we need to display the selected image before it is uploaded to core
+   */
+  filePathWhiteList: string[]
+}
+
+export let window: ExtendedBrowserWindow | null = null
 
 export function init(options: { hidden: boolean }) {
   if (window) {
@@ -41,7 +50,7 @@ export function init(options: { hidden: boolean }) {
 
   const isMac = platform() === 'darwin'
 
-  const main_window = (window = <BrowserWindow & { hidden?: boolean }>(
+  const main_window = (window = <ExtendedBrowserWindow>(
     new electron.BrowserWindow({
       backgroundColor: '#282828',
       // backgroundThrottling: false, // do not throttle animations/timers when page is background
@@ -67,6 +76,7 @@ export function init(options: { hidden: boolean }) {
       titleBarOverlay: true,
     })
   ))
+  main_window.filePathWhiteList = []
 
   // disable network request to fetch dictionary
   // issue: https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/22995
@@ -201,6 +211,10 @@ export function init(options: { hidden: boolean }) {
         return callback({ cancel: false })
       }
 
+      if (window?.filePathWhiteList.includes(pathname)) {
+        return callback({ cancel: false })
+      }
+
       log.errorWithoutStackTrace(
         'tried to access path that is not whitelisted',
         pathname