diff --git a/packages/safe-chain/src/scanning/malwareDatabase.js b/packages/safe-chain/src/scanning/malwareDatabase.js
index 03c7081..539044b 100644
--- a/packages/safe-chain/src/scanning/malwareDatabase.js
+++ b/packages/safe-chain/src/scanning/malwareDatabase.js
@@ -75,9 +75,15 @@ async function getMalwareDatabase() {
     if (version) {
       // Only cache the malware database when we have a version.
       writeDatabaseToLocalCache(malwareDatabase, version);
+      return malwareDatabase;
+    } else {
+      // We received a valid malware database, but the response
+      // did not contain an etag header with the version
+      ui.writeWarning(
+        "The malware database was downloaded, but could not be cached due to a missing version."
+      );
+      return malwareDatabase;
     }
-
-    return malwareDatabase;
   } catch (/** @type any */ error) {
     if (cachedDatabase) {
       ui.writeWarning(