diff --git a/src/main.ts b/src/main.ts
index 289138a13..1a9048bb6 100644
--- a/src/main.ts
+++ b/src/main.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
  *
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
  */
-import { LogLevel, ValidationPipe } from '@nestjs/common';
+import { LogLevel } from '@nestjs/common';
 import { ConfigService } from '@nestjs/config';
 import { NestFactory } from '@nestjs/core';
 import { NestExpressApplication } from '@nestjs/platform-express';
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import { MediaConfig } from './config/media.config';
 import { ConsoleLoggerService } from './logger/console-logger.service';
 import { BackendType } from './media/backends/backend-type.enum';
 import { setupSessionMiddleware } from './utils/session';
+import { setupValidationPipe } from './utils/setup-pipes';
 import { setupPrivateApiDocs, setupPublicApiDocs } from './utils/swagger';
 
 async function bootstrap(): Promise<void> {
@@ -55,13 +56,7 @@ async function bootstrap(): Promise<void> {
   });
   logger.log(`Enabling CORS for '${appConfig.rendererOrigin}'`, 'AppBootstrap');
 
-  app.useGlobalPipes(
-    new ValidationPipe({
-      forbidUnknownValues: true,
-      skipMissingProperties: false,
-      transform: true,
-    }),
-  );
+  app.useGlobalPipes(setupValidationPipe(logger));
   if (mediaConfig.backend.use === BackendType.FILESYSTEM) {
     logger.log(
       `Serving the local folder '${mediaConfig.backend.filesystem.uploadPath}' under '/uploads'`,
diff --git a/src/utils/setup-pipes.ts b/src/utils/setup-pipes.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e87f125b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/setup-pipes.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/*
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 The HedgeDoc developers (see AUTHORS file)
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
+ */
+import { BadRequestException, ValidationPipe } from '@nestjs/common';
+
+import { ConsoleLoggerService } from '../logger/console-logger.service';
+
+export function setupValidationPipe(
+  logger: ConsoleLoggerService,
+): ValidationPipe {
+  return new ValidationPipe({
+    forbidUnknownValues: true,
+    skipMissingProperties: false,
+    transform: true,
+    exceptionFactory: (errors): BadRequestException => {
+      // strip the trailing newline for cleaner logs
+      const errorMessage = errors.toString().trimEnd();
+      logger.debug(
+        `Errors were encountered while validating a request:\n${errorMessage}`,
+        'ValidationPipe',
+      );
+      return new BadRequestException(
+        'Encountered an exception while validating the request.',
+      );
+    },
+  });
+}