diff --git a/cmd/osv-scanner/main_test.go b/cmd/osv-scanner/main_test.go
index 2c701a546c3..3f3a7d362aa 100644
--- a/cmd/osv-scanner/main_test.go
+++ b/cmd/osv-scanner/main_test.go
@@ -62,7 +62,25 @@ func normalizeRootDirectory(t *testing.T, str string) string {
 	return strings.ReplaceAll(str, cwd, "<rootdir>")
 }
 
-// normalizeRootDirectory attempts to replace references to the temp directory
+// normalizeUserCacheDirectory attempts to replace references to the current working
+// directory with "<tempdir>", in order to reduce the noise of the cmp diff
+func normalizeUserCacheDirectory(t *testing.T, str string) string {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	cacheDir, err := os.UserCacheDir()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("could not get user cache (%v) - results and diff might be inaccurate!", err)
+	}
+
+	cacheDir = normalizeFilePaths(t, cacheDir)
+
+	// file uris with Windows end up with three slashes, so we normalize that too
+	str = strings.ReplaceAll(str, "file:///"+cacheDir, "file://<tempdir>")
+
+	return strings.ReplaceAll(str, cacheDir, "<tempdir>")
+}
+
+// normalizeTempDirectory attempts to replace references to the temp directory
 // with "<tempdir>", to ensure tests pass across different OSs
 func normalizeTempDirectory(t *testing.T, str string) string {
 	t.Helper()
@@ -95,6 +113,7 @@ func normalizeStdStream(t *testing.T, std *bytes.Buffer) string {
 		normalizeFilePaths,
 		normalizeRootDirectory,
 		normalizeTempDirectory,
+		normalizeUserCacheDirectory,
 		normalizeErrors,
 	} {
 		str = normalizer(t, str)
@@ -503,18 +522,19 @@ func TestRun_LocalDatabases(t *testing.T) {
 			exit: 0,
 		},
 	}
+
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		tt := tt
 		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Parallel()
 
-			testDir, cleanupTestDir := createTestDir(t)
-			defer cleanupTestDir()
-
-			old := tt.args
-
-			tt.args = []string{"", "--experimental-local-db-path", testDir}
-			tt.args = append(tt.args, old[1:]...)
+			if testutility.IsAcceptanceTest() {
+				testDir, cleanupTestDir := createTestDir(t)
+				defer cleanupTestDir()
+				old := tt.args
+				tt.args = []string{"", "--experimental-local-db-path", testDir}
+				tt.args = append(tt.args, old[1:]...)
+			}
 
 			// run each test twice since they should provide the same output,
 			// and the second run should be fast as the db is already available
diff --git a/internal/local/check.go b/internal/local/check.go
index 915ca240a1f..988c10d988e 100644
--- a/internal/local/check.go
+++ b/internal/local/check.go
@@ -73,10 +73,10 @@ func setupLocalDBDirectory(localDBPath string) (string, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	err = os.MkdirAll(path.Join(localDBPath, "osv-scanner"), 0750)
-
+	altPath := path.Join(localDBPath, "osv-scanner")
+	err = os.MkdirAll(altPath, 0750)
 	if err == nil {
-		return path.Join(localDBPath, "osv-scanner"), nil
+		return altPath, nil
 	}
 
 	// if we're implicitly picking a path, try the temp directory before giving up
diff --git a/internal/sourceanalysis/rust_test.go b/internal/sourceanalysis/rust_test.go
index caf0f10e3c5..a9fd8dabdd5 100644
--- a/internal/sourceanalysis/rust_test.go
+++ b/internal/sourceanalysis/rust_test.go
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ func Test_functionsFromDWARF(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func Test_rustBuildSource(t *testing.T) {
-	testutility.AcceptanceTests(t, "Requires rust toolchain to be installed")
+	testutility.SkipIfNotAcceptanceTesting(t, "Requires rust toolchain to be installed")
 	t.Parallel()
 
 	workingDir, err := os.Getwd()
diff --git a/internal/testutility/utility.go b/internal/testutility/utility.go
index ae544775674..e7b3395afa4 100644
--- a/internal/testutility/utility.go
+++ b/internal/testutility/utility.go
@@ -34,11 +34,17 @@ func Skip(t *testing.T, args ...any) {
 	snaps.Skip(t, args...)
 }
 
+// Access to environment variable that toggles acceptance testing execution paths
+// Acceptance testing is "On" only when var set to "true"
+func IsAcceptanceTest() bool {
+	return os.Getenv("TEST_ACCEPTANCE") == "true"
+}
+
 // AcceptanceTests marks this test function as a extended that require additional dependencies
 // automatically skipped unless running in a CI environment
-func AcceptanceTests(t *testing.T, reason string) {
+func SkipIfNotAcceptanceTesting(t *testing.T, reason string) {
 	t.Helper()
-	if os.Getenv("TEST_ACCEPTANCE") != "true" {
+	if !IsAcceptanceTest() {
 		Skip(t, "Skipping extended test: ", reason)
 	}
 }