diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 494fb338a..33a814916 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -113,6 +113,12 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- Fixed an issue where the pipeline could freeze if a task cancellation never
+  completed because a third-party library swallowed asyncio.CancelledError. We
+  now apply a timeout to task cancellations to prevent these freezes. If the
+  timeout is reached, the system logs warnings and leaves dangling tasks behind,
+  which can help diagnose where cancellation is being blocked.
+
 - Fixed an `AudioBufferProcessor` issues that was causing user audio to be
   missing in stereo recordings causing bot and user overlaps.
 
diff --git a/src/pipecat/processors/frame_processor.py b/src/pipecat/processors/frame_processor.py
index 894dabbe7..0b55082aa 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/processors/frame_processor.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/processors/frame_processor.py
@@ -455,9 +455,13 @@ class FrameProcessor(BaseObject):
             name = f"{self}::{coroutine.cr_code.co_name}"
         return self.task_manager.create_task(coroutine, name)
 
-    async def cancel_task(self, task: asyncio.Task, timeout: Optional[float] = None):
+    async def cancel_task(self, task: asyncio.Task, timeout: Optional[float] = 1.0):
         """Cancel a task managed by this processor.
 
+        A default timeout if 1 second is used in order to avoid potential
+        freezes caused by certain libraries that swallow
+        `asyncio.CancelledError`.
+
         Args:
             task: The task to cancel.
             timeout: Optional timeout for task cancellation.