diff --git a/contrib/guix/libexec/codesign.sh b/contrib/guix/libexec/codesign.sh
index 59df8e87fac223..137dbe4427590f 100755
--- a/contrib/guix/libexec/codesign.sh
+++ b/contrib/guix/libexec/codesign.sh
@@ -38,12 +38,8 @@ ACTUAL_OUTDIR="${OUTDIR}"
 OUTDIR="${DISTSRC}/output"
 
 git_head_version() {
-    local recent_tag
-    if recent_tag="$(git -C "$1" describe --exact-match HEAD 2> /dev/null)"; then
-        echo "${recent_tag#v}"
-    else
-        git -C "$1" rev-parse --short=12 HEAD
-    fi
+    recent_tag="$(git -C "$1" describe --abbrev=12 --dirty 2> /dev/null)"
+    echo "${recent_tag#v}"
 }
 
 CODESIGNATURE_GIT_ARCHIVE="${DIST_ARCHIVE_BASE}/${DISTNAME}-codesignatures-$(git_head_version "$DETACHED_SIGS_REPO").tar.gz"
diff --git a/contrib/shell/git-utils.bash b/contrib/shell/git-utils.bash
index 37bac1f38d8f08..1371c3df70c0f6 100644
--- a/contrib/shell/git-utils.bash
+++ b/contrib/shell/git-utils.bash
@@ -5,10 +5,6 @@ git_root() {
 }
 
 git_head_version() {
-    local recent_tag
-    if recent_tag="$(git describe --exact-match HEAD 2> /dev/null)"; then
-        echo "${recent_tag#v}"
-    else
-        git rev-parse --short=12 HEAD
-    fi
+    recent_tag="$(git describe --abbrev=12 --dirty 2> /dev/null)"
+    echo "${recent_tag#v}"
 }