diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/curl/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/curl/package.py
index deee1c1b66..047b8bdb0b 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/curl/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/curl/package.py
@@ -14,8 +14,10 @@ class Curl(AutotoolsPackage):
 
     homepage = "https://curl.se/"
     # URL must remain http:// so Spack can bootstrap curl
-    url      = "http://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.74.0.tar.bz2"
+    url      = "http://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.78.0.tar.bz2"
 
+    version('7.78.0', sha256='98530b317dc95ccb324bbe4f834f07bb642fbc393b794ddf3434f246a71ea44a')
+    version('7.77.0', sha256='6c0c28868cb82593859fc43b9c8fdb769314c855c05cf1b56b023acf855df8ea')
     version('7.76.1', sha256='7a8e184d7d31312c4ebf6a8cb59cd757e61b2b2833a9ed4f9bf708066e7695e9')
     version('7.76.0', sha256='e29bfe3633701590d75b0071bbb649ee5ca4ca73f00649268bd389639531c49a')
     version('7.75.0', sha256='50552d4501c178e4cc68baaecc487f466a3d6d19bbf4e50a01869effb316d026')
@@ -79,11 +81,16 @@ def configure_args(self):
             # add variants for these in the future
             '--without-brotli',
             '--without-libgsasl',
-            '--without-libmetalink',
             '--without-libpsl',
             '--without-zstd',
         ]
 
+        # https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2021/06/07/bye-bye-metalink-in-curl/
+        # We always disable it explicitly, but the flag is gone in newer
+        # versions.
+        if spec.satisfies('@:7.77'):
+            args.append('--without-libmetalink')
+
         if spec.satisfies('+darwinssl'):
             args.append('--with-darwinssl')
         else: