diff --git a/.github/workflows/golangci-lint.yml b/.github/workflows/golangci-lint.yml
index 02aa7bc7d..5a2e94569 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/golangci-lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/golangci-lint.yml
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@ jobs:
       - name: golangci-lint
         uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@4afd733a84b1f43292c63897423277bb7f4313a9  # v8.0.0
         with:
-          version: v2.1.6
+          version: v2.4.0
diff --git a/.go-version b/.go-version
index 7a429d68a..ad2191947 100644
--- a/.go-version
+++ b/.go-version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.24.6
+1.25.0
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3f2ff1528..9d6014304 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ out-of-tree plugins.
 To compile CoreDNS, we assume you have a working Go setup. See various tutorials if you don’t have
 that already configured.
 
-First, make sure your golang version is 1.23.0 or higher as `go mod` support and other api is needed.
+First, make sure your golang version is 1.24.0 or higher as `go mod` support and other api is needed.
 See [here](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Modules) for `go mod` details.
 Then, check out the project and run `make` to compile the binary:
 
diff --git a/coremain/run_test.go b/coremain/run_test.go
index 7285aaf3c..84ca7dfa5 100644
--- a/coremain/run_test.go
+++ b/coremain/run_test.go
@@ -113,9 +113,7 @@ func TestConfLoader(t *testing.T) {
 func TestDefaultLoader(t *testing.T) {
 	// The working directory matters because defaultLoader() looks for "Corefile" in the current directory
 	tmpDir := t.TempDir()
-	if err := os.Chdir(tmpDir); err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("Failed to change to temp directory: %v", err)
-	}
+	t.Chdir(tmpDir)
 
 	// Test without Corefile
 	input, err := defaultLoader("dns")
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index c1cdec3b6..fa24fbfac 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ module github.com/coredns/coredns
 
 // Note this minimum version requirement. CoreDNS supports the last two
 // Go versions. This follows the upstream Go project support.
-go 1.23.0
+go 1.24.0
 
 require (
 	github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-go v68.0.0+incompatible