diff --git a/tests/test_bundled_updates.py b/tests/test_bundled_updates.py
index d5a5048..ca003cc 100644
--- a/tests/test_bundled_updates.py
+++ b/tests/test_bundled_updates.py
@@ -202,6 +202,16 @@ class WolfBundledOnlyTests(unittest.TestCase):
             with patch("util.wolfdawn.bundled_binary_path", return_value=wolf):
                 self.assertEqual(ensure_wolf_binary(), wolf)
 
+    def test_ensure_wolf_binary_makes_bundled_copy_executable(self):
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as raw:
+            wolf = Path(raw) / "wolf"
+            wolf.write_bytes(b"\x7fELF")
+            wolf.chmod(0o644)
+            with patch("util.wolfdawn.bundled_binary_path", return_value=wolf):
+                with patch("util.wolfdawn._platform_dir", return_value="linux"):
+                    ensure_wolf_binary()
+            self.assertTrue(wolf.stat().st_mode & 0o111)
+
     def test_ensure_wolf_binary_raises_when_missing(self):
         missing = Path("/nonexistent/wolf/missing")
         with patch("util.wolfdawn.bundled_binary_path", return_value=missing):
diff --git a/util/wolfdawn/__init__.py b/util/wolfdawn/__init__.py
index 3413baf..d53f0fc 100644
--- a/util/wolfdawn/__init__.py
+++ b/util/wolfdawn/__init__.py
@@ -265,6 +265,18 @@ def download_wolf_binary(platform: Optional[str] = None, log_fn=print) -> Path:
     return _extract_wolf_from_zip(zip_bytes, dest, log_fn)
 
 
+def _ensure_executable(path: Path) -> None:
+    """Ensure a bundled binary is executable (git checkout may drop +x)."""
+    if _platform_dir() == "windows":
+        return
+    try:
+        if path.stat().st_mode & 0o111:
+            return
+        path.chmod(0o755)
+    except OSError:  # pragma: no cover - non-POSIX filesystems
+        pass
+
+
 def ensure_wolf_binary(log_fn=print) -> Path:
     """Return the bundled ``wolf`` binary path (no upstream fetch at runtime).
 
@@ -274,6 +286,7 @@ def ensure_wolf_binary(log_fn=print) -> Path:
     """
     bundled = bundled_binary_path()
     if bundled.is_file():
+        _ensure_executable(bundled)
         return bundled
     raise WolfDawnError(
         f"No bundled WolfDawn binary for '{_platform_dir()}' at {bundled}. "