diff --git a/tests/framework/artifacts.py b/tests/framework/artifacts.py
index 0ed27c16b61..701f26cdd40 100644
--- a/tests/framework/artifacts.py
+++ b/tests/framework/artifacts.py
@@ -75,10 +75,10 @@ def jailer(self):
 
     @property
     def version(self):
-        """Return Firecracker's version: `X.Y.Z`."""
-        # Get the filename, split on '-' and trim the leading 'v'.
-        # sample: firecracker-v1.2.0
-        return self.path.name.split("-")[1][1:]
+        """Return Firecracker's version: `X.Y.Z-prerelase`."""
+        # Get the filename, split on the first '-' and trim the leading 'v'.
+        # sample: firecracker-v1.2.0-alpha
+        return self.path.name.split("-", 1)[1][1:]
 
     @property
     def version_tuple(self):
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ def working_version_as_artifact():
     Return working copy of Firecracker as a release artifact
     """
     cargo_version = get_firecracker_version_from_toml()
-    return FirecrackerArtifact(current_release(cargo_version.base_version)[0])
+    return FirecrackerArtifact(current_release(str(cargo_version))[0])
 
 
 def firecracker_artifacts():
diff --git a/tests/framework/utils.py b/tests/framework/utils.py
index f35819236ad..35df48c7d7a 100644
--- a/tests/framework/utils.py
+++ b/tests/framework/utils.py
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from typing import Dict
 
-import packaging.version
 import psutil
+import semver
 from tenacity import (
     Retrying,
     retry,
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@ def get_firecracker_version_from_toml():
     """
     cmd = "cd ../src/firecracker && cargo pkgid | cut -d# -f2 | cut -d: -f2"
     _, stdout, _ = check_output(cmd)
-    return packaging.version.parse(stdout)
+    return semver.Version.parse(stdout)
 
 
 def get_kernel_version(level=2):
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_api.py b/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_api.py
index e7c730acc94..24283228f9a 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_api.py
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_api.py
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@
 import resource
 from pathlib import Path
 
-import packaging.version
 import pytest
+import semver
 
 import host_tools.drive as drive_tools
 import host_tools.network as net_tools
@@ -923,14 +923,12 @@ def test_api_version(uvm_plain):
     assert preboot_response.json() == postboot_response.json()
 
     cargo_version = get_firecracker_version_from_toml()
-    api_version = packaging.version.parse(
-        preboot_response.json()["firecracker_version"]
-    )
+    api_version = semver.Version.parse(preboot_response.json()["firecracker_version"])
 
     # Cargo version should match FC API version
     assert cargo_version == api_version
 
-    binary_version = packaging.version.parse(test_microvm.firecracker_version)
+    binary_version = semver.Version.parse(test_microvm.firecracker_version)
     assert api_version == binary_version
 
 
diff --git a/tools/devctr/Dockerfile b/tools/devctr/Dockerfile
index 9b9c52ecdf1..0ee47d7b5ce 100644
--- a/tools/devctr/Dockerfile
+++ b/tools/devctr/Dockerfile
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ RUN cd /usr/include/$ARCH-linux-musl \
     && ln -s ../asm-generic asm-generic
 
 # Install static version of libseccomp
-# We need to compile from source because 
+# We need to compile from source because
 # libseccomp provided by the distribution is not
 # compiled with musl-gcc and we need this
 # for our musl builds.
diff --git a/tools/devctr/poetry.lock b/tools/devctr/poetry.lock
index 62018578d73..637e4362018 100644
--- a/tools/devctr/poetry.lock
+++ b/tools/devctr/poetry.lock
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# This file is automatically @generated by Poetry 2.1.1 and should not be changed by hand.
+# This file is automatically @generated by Poetry 2.1.3 and should not be changed by hand.
 
 [[package]]
 name = "aiohappyeyeballs"
@@ -2147,6 +2147,18 @@ dev = ["cython-lint (>=0.12.2)", "doit (>=0.36.0)", "mypy (==1.10.0)", "pycodest
 doc = ["intersphinx_registry", "jupyterlite-pyodide-kernel", "jupyterlite-sphinx (>=0.19.1)", "jupytext", "matplotlib (>=3.5)", "myst-nb", "numpydoc", "pooch", "pydata-sphinx-theme (>=0.15.2)", "sphinx (>=5.0.0,<8.0.0)", "sphinx-copybutton", "sphinx-design (>=0.4.0)"]
 test = ["Cython", "array-api-strict (>=2.0,<2.1.1)", "asv", "gmpy2", "hypothesis (>=6.30)", "meson", "mpmath", "ninja ; sys_platform != \"emscripten\"", "pooch", "pytest", "pytest-cov", "pytest-timeout", "pytest-xdist", "scikit-umfpack", "threadpoolctl"]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "semver"
+version = "3.0.4"
+description = "Python helper for Semantic Versioning (https://semver.org)"
+optional = false
+python-versions = ">=3.7"
+groups = ["main"]
+files = [
+    {file = "semver-3.0.4-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:9c824d87ba7f7ab4a1890799cec8596f15c1241cb473404ea1cb0c55e4b04746"},
+    {file = "semver-3.0.4.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:afc7d8c584a5ed0a11033af086e8af226a9c0b206f313e0301f8dd7b6b589602"},
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "setproctitle"
 version = "1.3.6"
@@ -2581,4 +2593,4 @@ propcache = ">=0.2.1"
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.1"
 python-versions = "^3.10.0"
-content-hash = "95b0cf9fbdb252f8db0f1252da9373862660af491300136524e80c9dce79ff2b"
+content-hash = "bb8080a3d8d9c807d8754ea4b415f4a2474598b5868d8ecfd26a545347cf149d"
diff --git a/tools/devctr/pyproject.toml b/tools/devctr/pyproject.toml
index 5739c73ed83..db70f41b2cb 100644
--- a/tools/devctr/pyproject.toml
+++ b/tools/devctr/pyproject.toml
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ requests-unixsocket2 = "^0.4.0"
 scipy = "^1.11.2"
 setproctitle = "^1.3.2"
 tenacity = "^8.2.2"
+semver = "^3.0.4"
 
 
 [tool.poetry.group.dev.dependencies]
diff --git a/tools/devtool b/tools/devtool
index 5b59e17228e..9d12c58fd60 100755
--- a/tools/devtool
+++ b/tools/devtool
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
 DEVCTR_IMAGE_NO_TAG="public.ecr.aws/firecracker/fcuvm"
 
 # Development container tag
-DEVCTR_IMAGE_TAG=${DEVCTR_IMAGE_TAG:-v81}
+DEVCTR_IMAGE_TAG=${DEVCTR_IMAGE_TAG:-v82}
 
 # Development container image (name:tag)
 # This should be updated whenever we upgrade the development container.