diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b3b63b076..6eeced5ff 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # variables that should not be overridden by the user
 VER = $(shell grep IC_VERSION .github/data/version.txt | cut -d '=' -f 2)
-GIT_TAG = $(shell git tag --sort=-version:refname | head -n1 || echo untagged)
+GIT_TAG = $(shell git describe --exact-match --tags || echo untagged)
 VERSION = $(VER)-SNAPSHOT
 PLUS_ARGS = --secret id=nginx-repo.crt,src=nginx-repo.crt --secret id=nginx-repo.key,src=nginx-repo.key