diff --git a/meilisearch-http/src/data/mod.rs b/meilisearch-http/src/data/mod.rs
index ed5ce4952..fee29561a 100644
--- a/meilisearch-http/src/data/mod.rs
+++ b/meilisearch-http/src/data/mod.rs
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ use std::ops::Deref;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 
 use sha2::Digest;
+use anyhow::bail;
 
 use crate::index_controller::{IndexController, LocalIndexController, IndexMetadata, Settings, IndexSettings};
 use crate::option::Opt;
@@ -126,6 +127,9 @@ impl Data {
     }
 
     pub fn create_index(&self, name: impl AsRef<str>, primary_key: Option<impl AsRef<str>>) -> anyhow::Result<IndexMetadata> {
+        if !is_index_uid_valid(name.as_ref()) {
+            bail!("invalid index uid: {:?}", name.as_ref())
+        }
         let settings = IndexSettings {
             name: Some(name.as_ref().to_string()),
             primary_key: primary_key.map(|s| s.as_ref().to_string()),
@@ -145,3 +149,8 @@ impl Data {
         &self.api_keys
     }
 }
+
+fn is_index_uid_valid(uid: &str) -> bool {
+    uid.chars().all(|x| x.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || x == '-' || x == '_')
+}
+
diff --git a/meilisearch-http/src/data/updates.rs b/meilisearch-http/src/data/updates.rs
index fbb9be801..a784dce99 100644
--- a/meilisearch-http/src/data/updates.rs
+++ b/meilisearch-http/src/data/updates.rs
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 use std::ops::Deref;
 
+use anyhow::bail;
 use async_compression::tokio_02::write::GzipEncoder;
 use futures_util::stream::StreamExt;
 use milli::update::{IndexDocumentsMethod, UpdateFormat};
 use tokio::io::AsyncWriteExt;
 
-use crate::index_controller::UpdateStatus;
-use crate::index_controller::{IndexController, Settings, IndexSettings, IndexMetadata};
-use super::Data;
+use super::{Data, is_index_uid_valid};
+use crate::index_controller::{UpdateStatus, IndexController, Settings, IndexSettings, IndexMetadata};
 
 impl Data {
     pub async fn add_documents<B, E>(
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ impl Data {
         B: Deref<Target = [u8]>,
         E: std::error::Error + Send + Sync + 'static,
     {
+        if !is_index_uid_valid(index.as_ref()) {
+            bail!("invalid index uid: {:?}", index.as_ref())
+        }
+
         let file = tokio::task::spawn_blocking(tempfile::tempfile).await?;
         let file = tokio::fs::File::from_std(file?);
         let mut encoder = GzipEncoder::new(file);
@@ -57,6 +61,9 @@ impl Data {
         index: impl AsRef<str> + Send + Sync + 'static,
         settings: Settings
     ) -> anyhow::Result<UpdateStatus> {
+        if !is_index_uid_valid(index.as_ref()) {
+            bail!("invalid index uid: {:?}", index.as_ref())
+        }
         let index_controller = self.index_controller.clone();
         let update = tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || index_controller.update_settings(index, settings)).await??;
         Ok(update.into())