diff --git a/.github/actions/verify-release-notes/Dockerfile b/.github/actions/verify-release-notes/Dockerfile
index 2bdf2021e9..5e248250f6 100644
--- a/.github/actions/verify-release-notes/Dockerfile
+++ b/.github/actions/verify-release-notes/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-FROM python:3.10.4
+FROM python:3.12.13
 
 RUN pip3 install pygithub==1.55
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/verify-release-notes.yml b/.github/workflows/verify-release-notes.yml
index d7021cc539..6e63c2cf19 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/verify-release-notes.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/verify-release-notes.yml
@@ -11,14 +11,11 @@ jobs:
     name: Verify Release Notes
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
-      # We *only* need to check out the .github/ directory.
-      # The verify RELEASE_NOTES script uses the GitHub API to verify that RELEASE_NOTES was
-      # modified.
-      - name: Check out action
-        uses: Bhacaz/checkout-files@73e17cfbe8d7e0c6b2672b20cb05a718e20d18d4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
         with:
-          files: .github
-          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          fetch-depth: 0
+          sparse-checkout: |
+            .github
       - name: Verify release notes
         uses: ./.github/actions/verify-release-notes
         with: