diff --git a/muted-tests.yml b/muted-tests.yml
index 1972065aade62..87ad137c1e369 100644
--- a/muted-tests.yml
+++ b/muted-tests.yml
@@ -301,9 +301,6 @@ tests:
 - class: org.elasticsearch.index.engine.ThreadPoolMergeSchedulerTests
   method: testSchedulerCloseWaitsForRunningMerge
   issue: https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/125236
-- class: org.elasticsearch.xpack.security.SecurityRolesMultiProjectIT
-  method: testUpdatingFileBasedRoleAffectsAllProjects
-  issue: https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/126223
 - class: org.elasticsearch.packaging.test.DockerTests
   method: test020PluginsListWithNoPlugins
   issue: https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/126232
diff --git a/test/external-modules/multi-project/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/SecurityRolesMultiProjectIT.java b/test/external-modules/multi-project/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/SecurityRolesMultiProjectIT.java
index 2cf6fe02411ca..cd223e57deedd 100644
--- a/test/external-modules/multi-project/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/SecurityRolesMultiProjectIT.java
+++ b/test/external-modules/multi-project/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/SecurityRolesMultiProjectIT.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.contains;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsInAnyOrder;
@@ -132,14 +133,15 @@ public void testUpdatingFileBasedRoleAffectsAllProjects() throws Exception {
         assertBusy(() -> {
             assertThat(getClusterPrivileges(project1, username1), contains("monitor"));
             assertThat(getClusterPrivileges(project2, username2), contains("monitor"));
-        });
+        }, 20, TimeUnit.SECONDS); // increasing this to try and solve for a rare failure
+
         rolesFile.update(Resource.fromString(""));
 
         assertBusy(() -> {
             // Both projects should automatically reflect that the role has been removed
             assertThat(getClusterPrivileges(project1, username1), empty());
             assertThat(getClusterPrivileges(project2, username2), empty());
-        });
+        }, 20, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
     }
 
     private void createUser(ProjectId projectId, String username, String roleName) throws IOException {
diff --git a/x-pack/test/smb-fixture/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/fixtures/smb/SmbTestContainer.java b/x-pack/test/smb-fixture/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/fixtures/smb/SmbTestContainer.java
index 27d8257f4be10..e2d268bf26619 100644
--- a/x-pack/test/smb-fixture/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/fixtures/smb/SmbTestContainer.java
+++ b/x-pack/test/smb-fixture/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/test/fixtures/smb/SmbTestContainer.java
@@ -27,7 +27,10 @@ public SmbTestContainer() {
             new ImageFromDockerfile("es-smb-fixture").withDockerfileFromBuilder(
                 builder -> builder.from(DOCKER_BASE_IMAGE)
                     .env("TZ", "Etc/UTC")
-                    .run("DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get update -qqy && apt-get install -qqy tzdata winbind samba ldap-utils")
+                    .run(
+                        "DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -o Acquire::Retries=10 update -qqy && apt-get install -qqy tzdata"
+                            + " winbind samba ldap-utils "
+                    )
                     .copy("fixture/provision/installsmb.sh", "/fixture/provision/installsmb.sh")
                     .copy("fixture/certs/ca.key", "/fixture/certs/ca.key")
                     .copy("fixture/certs/ca.pem", "/fixture/certs/ca.pem")