diff --git a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/abort.d/README b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/abort.d/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..014518a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/abort.d/README
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Executable files in abort.d will be executed if downloading the upgrade
+image has failed and should revert the actions from download.d.
+
+We can't really do anything when the download has succeeded, but the
+flashing has failed, as the autoupdater process will have been replaced by
+sysupgrade by then.
diff --git a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/download.d/95drop_caches b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/download.d/95drop_caches
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..814159f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/download.d/95drop_caches
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+sync
+sysctl -w vm.drop_caches=3
diff --git a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/download.d/README b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/download.d/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1c53e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/autoupdater/download.d/README
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Executable files in download.d will be executed after the update manifest
+has been verified, but before the actual image is downloaded.
diff --git a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua
index 08c03db..d5dd67e 100644
--- a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua
+++ b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/lib/lua/autoupdater/util.lua
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-local io = io
-local math = math
 local nixio = require 'nixio'
+local fs = require 'nixio.fs'
+local util = require 'nixio.util'
 
 
-module 'autoupdater.util'
+module('autoupdater.util', package.seeall)
 
 
 -- Executes a command in the background, without parsing the command through a shell (in contrast to os.execute)
@@ -42,6 +42,39 @@ function popen(...)
 end
 
 
+-- Executes all executable files in a directory
+function run_dir(dir)
+  local function is_ok(entry)
+    if entry:sub(1, 1) == '.' then
+      return false
+    end
+
+    local file = dir .. '/' .. entry
+    if fs.stat(file, 'type') ~= 'reg' then
+      return false
+    end
+    if not fs.access(file, 'x') then
+      return false
+    end
+
+    return true
+  end
+
+  local files = util.consume(fs.dir(dir))
+  if not files then
+    return
+  end
+
+  table.sort(files)
+
+  for _, entry in ipairs(files) do
+    if is_ok(entry) then
+      exec(dir .. '/' .. entry)
+    end
+  end
+end
+
+
 -- Seeds Lua's random generator from /dev/urandom
 function randomseed()
   local f = io.open('/dev/urandom', 'r')
diff --git a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater
index 73510b1..681d35c 100755
--- a/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater
+++ b/admin/autoupdater/files/usr/sbin/autoupdater
@@ -241,6 +241,10 @@ end
 
 -- Tries to perform an update from a given mirror
 local function autoupdate(mirror)
+  local download_d_dir = '/usr/lib/autoupdater/download.d'
+  local abort_d_dir = '/usr/lib/autoupdater/abort.d'
+
+
   local manifest = read_manifest(mirror)
   if not manifest then
     return false
@@ -259,13 +263,12 @@ local function autoupdate(mirror)
     return true
   end
 
-
-  autoupdater_util.exec('sync')
-  autoupdater_util.exec('sysctl', '-w', 'vm.drop_caches=3')
+  autoupdater_util.run_dir(download_d_dir)
   collectgarbage()
 
   local image = os.tmpname()
   if not fetch_firmware(mirror, manifest.filename, image) then
+    autoupdater_util.run_dir(abort_d_dir)
     return false
   end
 
@@ -275,6 +278,7 @@ local function autoupdate(mirror)
   if checksum ~= manifest.checksum then
     io.stderr:write('Invalid image checksum!\n')
     os.remove(image)
+    autoupdater_util.run_dir(abort_d_dir)
     return false
   end
 
@@ -294,6 +298,7 @@ local function autoupdate(mirror)
   -- We output the error message through stdout as stderr isn't available anymore
   io.write('Failed to call sysupgrade?\n')
   os.remove(image)
+  autoupdater_util.run_dir(abort_d_dir)
   os.exit(1)
 end