diff --git a/.github/workflows/validate.yml b/.github/workflows/validate.yml
index ab168010648..359a1d53d83 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/validate.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/validate.yml
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ jobs:
         id: setup-haskell
         with:
           ghc-version: ${{ matrix.ghc }}
-          cabal-version: 3.12.1.0 # see https://github.com/haskell/cabal/pull/10251
+          cabal-version: 3.18.1.0 # see https://github.com/haskell/cabal/pull/10251
           ghcup-release-channel: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/haskell/ghcup-metadata/master/ghcup-prereleases-0.0.9.yaml
 
       # runner.os isn't sufficient for binary compatible caches
diff --git a/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal b/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal
index e531b41859f..78ab4000630 100644
--- a/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal
+++ b/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal
@@ -153,6 +153,6 @@ custom-setup
   -- we only depend on even stable releases of lib:Cabal
   -- and must match the release used in validate.yml (see
   -- https://github.com/haskell/cabal/pull/10251)
-  setup-depends: Cabal ^>= 3.12.1.0,
-                 Cabal-syntax ^>= 3.12.1.0,
+  setup-depends: Cabal ^>= 3.18.1.0,
+                 Cabal-syntax ^>= 3.18.1.0,
                  base, filepath, directory