diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 12e642bc9d06..84477cd05416 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -10216,9 +10216,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "litep2p"
-version = "0.8.1"
+version = "0.8.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "5b67484b8ac41e1cfdf012f65fa81e88c2ef5f8a7d6dec0e2678c2d06dc04530"
+checksum = "569e7dbec8a0d4b08d30f4942cd579cfe8db5d3f83f8604abe61697c38d17e73"
 dependencies = [
  "async-trait",
  "bs58",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index b1a52712e736..964964908a9b 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -848,7 +848,7 @@ linked-hash-map = { version = "0.5.4" }
 linked_hash_set = { version = "0.1.4" }
 linregress = { version = "0.5.1" }
 lite-json = { version = "0.2.0", default-features = false }
-litep2p = { version = "0.8.1", features = ["websocket"] }
+litep2p = { version = "0.8.2", features = ["websocket"] }
 log = { version = "0.4.22", default-features = false }
 macro_magic = { version = "0.5.1" }
 maplit = { version = "1.0.2" }
diff --git a/prdoc/pr_6677.prdoc b/prdoc/pr_6677.prdoc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c6766889e68d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/prdoc/pr_6677.prdoc
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+title: 'chore: Update litep2p to v0.8.2'
+doc:
+- audience: Node Dev
+  description: |-
+    This includes a critical fix for debug release versions of litep2p (which are running in Kusama as validators).
+
+    While at it, have stopped the oncall pain of alerts around `incoming_connections_total`. We can rethink the metric expose of litep2p in Q1.
+
+crates:
+- name: sc-network
+  bump: minor
diff --git a/substrate/client/network/src/litep2p/mod.rs b/substrate/client/network/src/litep2p/mod.rs
index 10cf9f4da36d..6d3575fc2b6b 100644
--- a/substrate/client/network/src/litep2p/mod.rs
+++ b/substrate/client/network/src/litep2p/mod.rs
@@ -986,7 +986,15 @@ impl<B: BlockT + 'static, H: ExHashT> NetworkBackend<B, H> for Litep2pNetworkBac
 
 						let direction = match endpoint {
 							Endpoint::Dialer { .. } => "out",
-							Endpoint::Listener { .. } => "in",
+							Endpoint::Listener { .. } => {
+								// Increment incoming connections counter.
+								//
+								// Note: For litep2p these are represented by established negotiated connections,
+								// while for libp2p (legacy) these represent not-yet-negotiated connections.
+								metrics.incoming_connections_total.inc();
+
+								"in"
+							},
 						};
 						metrics.connections_opened_total.with_label_values(&[direction]).inc();
 
@@ -1058,6 +1066,7 @@ impl<B: BlockT + 'static, H: ExHashT> NetworkBackend<B, H> for Litep2pNetworkBac
 									NegotiationError::ParseError(_) => "parse-error",
 									NegotiationError::IoError(_) => "io-error",
 									NegotiationError::WebSocket(_) => "webscoket-error",
+									NegotiationError::BadSignature => "bad-signature",
 								}
 							};