diff --git a/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.test.ts b/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.test.ts
index 5f0988bfac..87b66e3d78 100644
--- a/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.test.ts
+++ b/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.test.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
 
-import { serializeAttributes, trimAttributeStrings } from './insert'
+import { serializeAttributes, trimAttributeStrings, tryToUnwrapAttributes } from './insert'
 
 describe('trimAttributeStrings', () => {
   it('keeps every key of an oversized attributes object instead of wiping it', () => {
@@ -47,6 +47,26 @@ describe('trimAttributeStrings', () => {
   })
 })
 
+describe('tryToUnwrapAttributes', () => {
+  it('returns an object as is', () => {
+    const attributes = { url: 'https://example.com' }
+    expect(tryToUnwrapAttributes(attributes)).toBe(attributes)
+  })
+
+  it('unwraps attributes encoded as JSON, also when encoded more than once', () => {
+    const attributes = { state: 'open' }
+    expect(tryToUnwrapAttributes(JSON.stringify(attributes))).toEqual(attributes)
+    expect(tryToUnwrapAttributes(JSON.stringify(JSON.stringify(attributes)))).toEqual(attributes)
+  })
+
+  it.each(['5', 'true', 'null', JSON.stringify('5')])(
+    'returns empty attributes for %s instead of looping forever',
+    (encoded) => {
+      expect(tryToUnwrapAttributes(encoded)).toEqual({})
+    },
+  )
+})
+
 describe('serializeAttributes', () => {
   const MAX_BYTES = 16 * 1024
   const expectUnderCap = (json: string) =>
diff --git a/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.ts b/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.ts
index 6927b9c892..040878e58d 100644
--- a/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.ts
+++ b/services/libs/data-access-layer/src/activities/insert.ts
@@ -236,12 +236,10 @@ function pruneToFit(value: object, maxBytes: number): object {
   return isArray ? kept.map((e) => e.value) : Object.fromEntries(kept.map((e) => [e.key, e.value]))
 }
 
-function tryToUnwrapAttributes(attributes: string | object): object {
-  // eslint-disable-next-line no-constant-condition
-  while (true) {
-    if (typeof attributes === 'object') {
-      return attributes
-    }
-    attributes = JSON.parse(attributes)
+export function tryToUnwrapAttributes(attributes: unknown): object {
+  let value = attributes
+  while (typeof value === 'string') {
+    value = JSON.parse(value)
   }
+  return value !== null && typeof value === 'object' ? value : {}
 }