diff --git a/src/Controllers/HomeController.cs b/src/Controllers/HomeController.cs
index 3f4e108..fc3e440 100644
--- a/src/Controllers/HomeController.cs
+++ b/src/Controllers/HomeController.cs
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ public class HomeController : Controller
         UserModel? user = await _ldap.GetUserByUidAsync(uid, _ldap.UsersAttributes);
         if (user is null || user.JpegPhoto is null || user.JpegPhoto == "")
         {
-            return File("user_default.jpeg", "image/jpeg");
+            return File(ImageHelper.GetDefaultUserImage(size ?? 48), "image/webp");
         }
         if (size is null)
         {
diff --git a/src/Controllers/UsersController.cs b/src/Controllers/UsersController.cs
index 2391301..5e4fd51 100644
--- a/src/Controllers/UsersController.cs
+++ b/src/Controllers/UsersController.cs
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ public class UsersController : Controller
             string? title = requestModel.Title;
             string userPassword = requestModel.UserPassword ?? "";
             UserDescription? description = requestModel.Description;
-            jpegPhoto ??= Convert.ToBase64String(System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes("wwwroot/user_default.jpeg")); // TODO: cleanup - make this a config setting
+            jpegPhoto ??= ImageHelper.GetDefaultUserImageAsBase64();
             string uid = UsersHelper.CreateUsername(requestModel.Cn ?? "", requestModel.Sn ?? "");
             title ??= "";
             description ??= new() {Address = new(), BirthDate = "", Workplace = "", Groups = []};
diff --git a/src/Helpers/ImageHelper.cs b/src/Helpers/ImageHelper.cs
index e0baa08..b230c87 100644
--- a/src/Helpers/ImageHelper.cs
+++ b/src/Helpers/ImageHelper.cs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ using SixLabors.ImageSharp;
 using SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Webp;
 using SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats;
 using Berufsschule_HAM.Models;
+using SixLabors.ImageSharp.Processing;
 
 namespace Berufsschule_HAM.Helpers;
 
@@ -30,6 +31,23 @@ public static class ImageHelper
 
             using var image = Image.Load(decoderOptions, inputStream);
 
+            int minDimension = Math.Min(image.Width, image.Height);
+            var cropRectangle = new Rectangle(
+                (image.Width - minDimension) / 2,
+                (image.Height - minDimension) / 2,
+                minDimension,
+                minDimension);
+
+            image.Mutate(x =>
+            {
+                x.Crop(cropRectangle);
+                x.Resize(new ResizeOptions
+                {
+                    Size = new Size(size, size),
+                    Mode = ResizeMode.Crop
+                });
+            });
+
             using var outputStream = new MemoryStream();
             image.Save(outputStream, new WebpEncoder());
             result = outputStream.ToArray();
@@ -38,6 +56,16 @@ public static class ImageHelper
         return result;
     }
 
+    public static byte[] GetDefaultUserImage(int size = 48)
+    {
+        return ResizeAndConvertToWebp(GetDefaultUserImageAsBase64(), size);
+    }
+
+    public static string GetDefaultUserImageAsBase64()
+    {
+        return Convert.ToBase64String(File.ReadAllBytes("wwwroot/user_default.webp"));
+    }
+
     public static async Task PreloadUsers(IEnumerable<UserModel> userModels, UserImagePreloadType? preloadType)
     {
         if (preloadType is null || preloadType == UserImagePreloadType.None) return;
diff --git a/src/wwwroot/user_default.jpeg b/src/wwwroot/user_default.jpeg
deleted file mode 100644
index 0141c99..0000000
Binary files a/src/wwwroot/user_default.jpeg and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/src/wwwroot/user_default.webp b/src/wwwroot/user_default.webp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f8687d
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/wwwroot/user_default.webp differ