diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-apply-patch.sh b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-apply-patch.sh
index d74de66f6c..893453538c 100755
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-apply-patch.sh
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-apply-patch.sh
@@ -2,14 +2,13 @@
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
-UPDATE_NEEDED=1
-
 . .github/workflows/common.sh
 
+BRANCH_NAME="cacerts-${VERSION_NEW}-${TARGET}"
+
 prepare_git_repo
 
-if ! checkout_branches "${VERSION_NEW}-${TARGET}"; then
-  UPDATE_NEEDED=0
+if ! checkout_branches "${BRANCH_NAME}"; then
   exit 0
 fi
 
@@ -19,7 +18,6 @@ pushd "${SDK_OUTER_SRCDIR}/third_party/coreos-overlay" >/dev/null || exit
 VERSION_OLD=$(sed -n "s/^DIST nss-\([0-9]*\.[0-9]*\).*$/\1/p" app-misc/ca-certificates/Manifest | sort -ruV | head -n1)
 if [[ "${VERSION_NEW}" = "${VERSION_OLD}" ]]; then
   echo "already the latest ca-certificates, nothing to do"
-  UPDATE_NEEDED=0
   exit 0
 fi
 
@@ -37,5 +35,6 @@ generate_patches app-misc ca-certificates ca-certificates
 
 apply_patches
 
-echo ::set-output name=VERSION_OLD::"${VERSION_OLD}"
-echo ::set-output name=UPDATE_NEEDED::"${UPDATE_NEEDED}"
+echo "VERSION_OLD=${VERSION_OLD}" >>"${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
+echo "UPDATE_NEEDED=1" >>"${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
+echo "BRANCH_NAME=${BRANCH_NAME}" >>"${GITHUB_OUTPUT}"
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-release.yml b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-release.yml
index 5450f0b7e9..e30def30df 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-release.yml
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/cacerts-release.yml
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           base: ${{ steps.figure-out-branch.outputs.BRANCH }}
-          branch: cacerts-${{ steps.fetch-latest-release.outputs.NSS_VERSION }}-${{ steps.figure-out-branch.outputs.BRANCH }}
+          branch: ${{ steps.apply-patch.outputs.BRANCH_NAME }}
           author: Flatcar Buildbot <buildbot@flatcar-linux.org>
           committer: Flatcar Buildbot <buildbot@flatcar-linux.org>
           title: Upgrade ca-certificates in ${{ steps.figure-out-branch.outputs.BRANCH }} from ${{ steps.apply-patch.outputs.VERSION_OLD }} to ${{ steps.fetch-latest-release.outputs.NSS_VERSION }}