diff --git a/bootstrap/cabal-bootstrap-gen.cabal b/bootstrap/cabal-bootstrap-gen.cabal
index c87e673c9a8..0a8b17cf97d 100644
--- a/bootstrap/cabal-bootstrap-gen.cabal
+++ b/bootstrap/cabal-bootstrap-gen.cabal
@@ -12,7 +12,12 @@ executable cabal-bootstrap-gen
     , base                   ^>=4.12.0.0 || ^>=4.13.0.0 || ^>=4.14.0.0 || ^>=4.15.0.0 || ^>=4.16.0.0 || ^>=4.17.0.0
     , bytestring             ^>=0.10.8.2 || ^>=0.11.0.0
     , Cabal                  ^>=3.4.1.0  || ^>=3.6.3.0 || ^>=3.10.1.0
-    , Cabal-syntax           ^>=3.10.1.0
+    , Cabal-syntax           ^>=3.8.1.0 || ^>=3.10.1.0
+        -- For the release process, we need the last *two* Cabal-syntax
+        -- versions here: one to make CI green when release Cabal-syntax is
+        -- not yet on Hackage and we are bumping versions.  The second for
+        -- when Cabal-syntax has been actually uploaded to Hackage and we
+        -- rerun `make bootstrap-jsons`.
     , cabal-install-parsers  ^>=0.3.0.1  || ^>=0.4.5 || ^>=0.6
     , cabal-plan             ^>=0.7.0.0
     , containers             ^>=0.6.0.1