diff --git a/cmake/package-lock.cmake b/cmake/package-lock.cmake
index 68c6cbf72b..10066d25a1 100644
--- a/cmake/package-lock.cmake
+++ b/cmake/package-lock.cmake
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ CPMDeclarePackage (doxygen_awesome
                    DOWNLOAD_ONLY TRUE
                    QUIET TRUE)
 # seqan2
-set (SEQAN3_SEQAN2_VERSION 2.5.2 CACHE STRING "")
+set (SEQAN3_SEQAN2_VERSION 2.5.3 CACHE STRING "")
 CPMDeclarePackage (seqan
                    NAME seqan
                    VERSION ${SEQAN3_SEQAN2_VERSION}
@@ -73,5 +73,9 @@ CPMDeclarePackage (use_ccache
                    SOURCE_SUBDIR ccache
                    SYSTEM TRUE
                    EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL TRUE)
+# sharg - only used for automatic version bumps for test/external_project/install-sharg.cmake
+set (SEQAN3_SHARG_VERSION 1.2.2 CACHE STRING "")
+# the following line is intentionally commented out
+#(VERSION ${SEQAN3_SHARG_VERSION} GITHUB_REPOSITORY seqan/sharg-parser)
 
 # cmake-format: on
diff --git a/test/external_project/install-sharg.cmake b/test/external_project/install-sharg.cmake
index d9757b1cb7..51455f5aa2 100644
--- a/test/external_project/install-sharg.cmake
+++ b/test/external_project/install-sharg.cmake
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ endif ()
 ExternalProject_Add (
     sharg_test_prerequisite
     PREFIX sharg_test_prerequisite
-    URL "https://github.com/seqan/sharg-parser/releases/download/1.2.1/sharg-1.2.1-Source.tar.xz"
-    URL_HASH SHA256=3ff0bf3ae2b3b5f927445bca2224918c2954a716c12633be531a35e183bf94b6
+    URL "https://github.com/seqan/sharg-parser/releases/download/${SEQAN3_SHARG_VERSION}/sharg-${SEQAN3_SHARG_VERSION}-Source.tar.xz"
+    URL_HASH SHA256=cf898d76e5cf0981be29dfae4a566ad41abafd27fb795f5287926c596dba0013
     CMAKE_ARGS ${SEQAN3_EXTERNAL_PROJECT_CMAKE_ARGS} #
                "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${SEQAN3_SYSTEM_PREFIX}"
     STEP_TARGETS configure install