diff --git a/app/config.py b/app/config.py
index 8aa498a..f085dac 100644
--- a/app/config.py
+++ b/app/config.py
@@ -96,8 +96,10 @@ class Config:
     # Secret key for signing challenges.
     # When not set via env, a shared secret is persisted to data/.pow_secret
     # so all gunicorn workers use the same HMAC key.
-    POW_SECRET = os.environ.get("FLASKPASTE_POW_SECRET", "") or _get_pow_secret(
-        Path(os.environ.get("FLASKPASTE_DB", Path(__file__).parent.parent / "data" / "pastes.db")).parent
+    _db_default = Path(__file__).parent.parent / "data" / "pastes.db"
+    _data_dir = Path(os.environ.get("FLASKPASTE_DB", _db_default)).parent
+    POW_SECRET = (
+        os.environ.get("FLASKPASTE_POW_SECRET", "") or _get_pow_secret(_data_dir)
     )
     # Registration PoW difficulty (higher than paste creation for security)
     REGISTER_POW_DIFFICULTY = int(os.environ.get("FLASKPASTE_REGISTER_POW", "24"))