diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 6d709b43..c1943aea 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -677,6 +677,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "rustc_version",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "cast"
+version = "0.3.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "37b2a672a2cb129a2e41c10b1224bb368f9f37a2b16b612598138befd7b37eb5"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "cc"
 version = "1.0.73"
@@ -944,12 +950,12 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "criterion"
-version = "0.3.5"
+version = "0.3.6"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "1604dafd25fba2fe2d5895a9da139f8dc9b319a5fe5354ca137cbbce4e178d10"
+checksum = "b01d6de93b2b6c65e17c634a26653a29d107b3c98c607c765bf38d041531cd8f"
 dependencies = [
  "atty",
- "cast",
+ "cast 0.3.0",
  "clap",
  "criterion-plot",
  "csv",
@@ -974,7 +980,7 @@ version = "0.4.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "d00996de9f2f7559f7f4dc286073197f83e92256a59ed395f9aac01fe717da57"
 dependencies = [
- "cast",
+ "cast 0.2.7",
  "itertools",
 ]
 
diff --git a/deny.toml b/deny.toml
index 3df85753..899e87b3 100644
--- a/deny.toml
+++ b/deny.toml
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ skip = [
 # dependencies starting at the specified crate, up to a certain depth, which is
 # by default infinite
 skip-tree = [
-    # wait for criterion to de-duplicate itertools transitive dependencies
-    { name = "criterion", version = "=0.3.5" },
+    # wait for criterion to upgrade cast, itoa, strsim transitive dependencies
+    { name = "criterion", version = "=0.3.6" },
 
     # ticket #3000: upgrade tower-fallback dependencies
     { name = "pin-project", version = "=0.4.29" },
@@ -70,15 +70,16 @@ skip-tree = [
     # wait for curve25519-dalek to upgrade
     { name = "digest", version = "=0.9.0" },
 
-    # wait for inferno -> num-format to upgrade
+    # wait for inferno -> num-format to upgrade (optional dependency)
     { name = "arrayvec", version = "=0.4.12" },
 
     # wait for tokio-test -> tokio-stream to upgrade
     { name = "tokio-util", version = "=0.6.9" },
 
-    # upgrade abscissa and arti
+    # upgrade abscissa and arti (optional dependency)
     { name = "darling", version = "=0.10.2" },
     { name = "darling", version = "=0.12.4" },
+    { name = "semver", version = "=0.9.0" },
     { name = "tracing-subscriber", version = "=0.1.6" },
 
     # wait for primitive-types to upgrade
diff --git a/zebra-chain/Cargo.toml b/zebra-chain/Cargo.toml
index 93865a0f..df7aa486 100644
--- a/zebra-chain/Cargo.toml
+++ b/zebra-chain/Cargo.toml
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ zebra-test = { path = "../zebra-test/", optional = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 # Benchmarks
-criterion = { version = "0.3.5", features = ["html_reports"] }
+criterion = { version = "0.3.6", features = ["html_reports"] }
 
 # Error Handling & Formatting
 color-eyre = "0.6.1"