diff --git a/.github/workflows/validate.yml b/.github/workflows/validate.yml
index a886214c01d..81d09a5dcda 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/validate.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/validate.yml
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ jobs:
         id: setup-haskell
         with:
           ghc-version: ${{ matrix.ghc }}
-          cabal-version: latest # latest is mandatory for cabal-testsuite, see https://github.com/haskell/cabal/issues/8133
+          cabal-version: 3.10.3.0 # see #10251
           ghcup-release-channel: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/haskell/ghcup-metadata/master/ghcup-prereleases-0.0.8.yaml
 
       #  See the following link for a breakdown of the following step
diff --git a/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal b/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal
index 92becccd8dc..f04dc391778 100644
--- a/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal
+++ b/cabal-testsuite/cabal-testsuite.cabal
@@ -145,9 +145,7 @@ executable test-runtime-deps
 
 custom-setup
   -- we only depend on even stable releases of lib:Cabal
-  -- and due to Custom complexity and ConstraintSetupCabalMaxVersion
-  -- it has to be the latest release version plus
-  -- you have to use the latest cabal-install release
-  setup-depends: Cabal == 3.12.*,
-                 Cabal-syntax == 3.12.*,
+  -- and must match the release used in validate.yml (see #10251)
+  setup-depends: Cabal ^>= 3.10.3,
+                 Cabal-syntax ^>= 3.10.3,
                  base, filepath, directory