diff --git a/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact.go b/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact.go
index 64ee6ec7646..103ee892dab 100644
--- a/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact.go
+++ b/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact.go
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ import (
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/cenkalti/backoff/v5"
+
+	"github.com/elastic/elastic-agent/internal/pkg/agent/application/upgrade/artifact/download"
 	semver "github.com/elastic/elastic-agent/pkg/version"
 )
 
@@ -116,21 +119,43 @@ func (r *artifactResult) Fetch(ctx context.Context, l Logger, dir string) error
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to create path %q: %w", dst, err)
 	}
 
-	err = DownloadPackage(ctx, l, r.doer, r.src, dst)
+	_, err = backoff.Retry(ctx, func() (any, error) {
+		if err = r.fetch(ctx, l, dst); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+
+		// check package hash
+		if err = download.VerifySHA512Hash(dst); err != nil {
+			l.Logf("inconsistent package hash detected: %s", err)
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("inconsistent package hash: %w", err)
+		}
+
+		return nil, nil
+	},
+		backoff.WithMaxTries(3),
+		backoff.WithBackOff(backoff.NewConstantBackOff(3*time.Second)),
+	)
+
 	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to fetch %s: %w", r.src, err)
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (r *artifactResult) fetch(ctx context.Context, l Logger, dst string) error {
+	if err := DownloadPackage(ctx, l, r.doer, r.src, dst); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to download %s: %w", r.src, err)
 	}
 
 	// fetch package hash
-	err = DownloadPackage(ctx, l, r.doer, r.src+extHash, dst+extHash)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("failed to download %s: %w", r.src, err)
+	if err := DownloadPackage(ctx, l, r.doer, r.src+extHash, dst+extHash); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to download %s: %w", r.src+extHash, err)
 	}
 
 	// fetch package asc
-	err = DownloadPackage(ctx, l, r.doer, r.src+extAsc, dst+extAsc)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("failed to download %s: %w", r.src, err)
+	if err := DownloadPackage(ctx, l, r.doer, r.src+extAsc, dst+extAsc); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to download %s: %w", r.src+extAsc, err)
 	}
 
 	return nil
@@ -144,7 +169,12 @@ func findURI(ctx context.Context, doer httpDoer, version *semver.ParsedSemVer) (
 			return fmt.Sprintf("https://snapshots.elastic.co/%s-%s/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/", version.CoreVersion(), version.BuildMetadata()), nil
 		}
 
-		buildID, err := findLatestSnapshot(ctx, doer, version.CoreVersion())
+		buildID, err := backoff.Retry(ctx, func() (any, error) {
+			return findLatestSnapshot(ctx, doer, version.CoreVersion())
+		},
+			backoff.WithMaxTries(3),
+			backoff.WithBackOff(backoff.NewConstantBackOff(3*time.Second)),
+		)
 		if err != nil {
 			return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to find snapshot information for version %q: %w", version, err)
 		}
diff --git a/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact_test.go b/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact_test.go
index 498a794c4f1..521f78c9d0c 100644
--- a/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact_test.go
+++ b/pkg/testing/fetcher_artifact_test.go
@@ -110,16 +110,17 @@ func (c *fakeHttpClient) Do(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
 
 func newFakeHttpClient(t *testing.T) *fakeHttpClient {
 	releaseResponse, err := os.ReadFile("./testdata/release-response.json")
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.NoError(t, err, "failed to read release response")
 
 	snapshotResponse, err := os.ReadFile("./testdata/snapshot-response.json")
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.NoError(t, err, "failed to read snapshot response")
 
 	manifestResponse, err := os.ReadFile("./testdata/build-manifest.json")
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.NoError(t, err, "failed to read manifest response")
 
-	binaryResponse := "not valid data; but its very fast to download something this small"
-	hashResponse := "c2f59774022b79b61a7e6bbe28f3388d00a5bc2c7416a5c8fda79042af491d335f9b87adf905d1b154abdd2e31b200e4b1bb23cb472297596b25edef0a3b8d59"
+	binaryResponse, err := os.ReadFile("./testdata/data.tar.gz")
+	require.NoError(t, err, "failed to read binary response")
+	hashResponse := "cc52f8aa1106857dae8d380f6c2cf789d5d52730df0b0e6aba908a5e1f3cb947fda63bb4bc0301a3bc3329ef4b2f3c5fa9be9d8975a4d0f8f43076cfd5a5ec8a"
 	ascResponse := `-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
 
         wsBcBAABCAAQBQJlTLh5CRD2Vuvax5DnywAAzNcIADKuYov0CMeK938JQEzR4mXP
@@ -153,11 +154,11 @@ func newFakeHttpClient(t *testing.T) *fakeHttpClient {
 		// 8.12 release
 		"https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.12.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
-			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(binaryResponse))),
+			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader(binaryResponse)),
 		},
 		"https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.12.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.sha512": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
-			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(hashResponse))),
+			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(hashResponse + " elastic-agent-8.12.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz"))),
 		},
 		"https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.12.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.asc": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
@@ -166,11 +167,11 @@ func newFakeHttpClient(t *testing.T) *fakeHttpClient {
 		// 8.13 SNAPSHOT
 		"https://snapshots.elastic.co/8.13.0-yil7wib0/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
-			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(binaryResponse))),
+			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader(binaryResponse)),
 		},
 		"https://snapshots.elastic.co/8.13.0-yil7wib0/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.sha512": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
-			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(hashResponse))),
+			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(hashResponse + " elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz"))),
 		},
 		"https://snapshots.elastic.co/8.13.0-yil7wib0/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.asc": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
@@ -184,11 +185,11 @@ func newFakeHttpClient(t *testing.T) *fakeHttpClient {
 		// 8.13 build l5snflwr
 		"https://snapshots.elastic.co/8.13.0-l5snflwr/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
-			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(binaryResponse))),
+			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader(binaryResponse)),
 		},
 		"https://snapshots.elastic.co/8.13.0-l5snflwr/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.sha512": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
-			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(hashResponse))),
+			Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader([]byte(hashResponse + " elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz"))),
 		},
 		"https://snapshots.elastic.co/8.13.0-l5snflwr/downloads/beats/elastic-agent/elastic-agent-8.13.0-SNAPSHOT-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.asc": {
 			StatusCode: 200,
diff --git a/pkg/testing/testdata/data.tar.gz b/pkg/testing/testdata/data.tar.gz
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8123a6ea354
Binary files /dev/null and b/pkg/testing/testdata/data.tar.gz differ