diff --git a/gradle/libs.versions.toml b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
index b063d950fbe..a4e83db8aee 100644
--- a/gradle/libs.versions.toml
+++ b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ apache-commons-collections = "4.4"
 apache-commons-io = "2.16.0"
 assertJ = "3.26.3"
 # match with <root>/settings.gradle.kts
-awsSdk = "2.26.25"
+awsSdk = "2.28.7"
 commonmark = "0.22.0"
 detekt = "1.23.6"
 intellijExt = "1.1.8"
diff --git a/plugins/core/core/src/migration/software/aws/toolkits/core/ToolkitClientManager.kt b/plugins/core/core/src/migration/software/aws/toolkits/core/ToolkitClientManager.kt
index 265107422b4..542001b68e6 100644
--- a/plugins/core/core/src/migration/software/aws/toolkits/core/ToolkitClientManager.kt
+++ b/plugins/core/core/src/migration/software/aws/toolkits/core/ToolkitClientManager.kt
@@ -20,10 +20,12 @@ import software.amazon.awssdk.core.client.config.SdkAdvancedClientOption
 import software.amazon.awssdk.core.interceptor.Context
 import software.amazon.awssdk.core.interceptor.ExecutionAttributes
 import software.amazon.awssdk.core.interceptor.ExecutionInterceptor
-import software.amazon.awssdk.core.interceptor.SdkInternalExecutionAttribute
-import software.amazon.awssdk.core.internal.http.pipeline.stages.ApplyUserAgentStage
 import software.amazon.awssdk.core.internal.http.pipeline.stages.ApplyUserAgentStage.HEADER_USER_AGENT
+import software.amazon.awssdk.core.internal.useragent.SdkClientUserAgentProperties
+import software.amazon.awssdk.core.internal.useragent.SdkUserAgentBuilder
+import software.amazon.awssdk.core.internal.useragent.UserAgentConstant
 import software.amazon.awssdk.core.retry.RetryMode
+import software.amazon.awssdk.core.util.SystemUserAgent
 import software.amazon.awssdk.http.SdkHttpClient
 import software.amazon.awssdk.regions.Region
 import software.amazon.awssdk.utils.SdkAutoCloseable
@@ -205,18 +207,22 @@ abstract class ToolkitClientManager {
                         }
 
                         val clientType = executionAttributes.getAttribute(AwsExecutionAttribute.CLIENT_TYPE)
-                        val sdkClient = executionAttributes.getAttribute(SdkInternalExecutionAttribute.SDK_CLIENT)
-                        val serviceClientConfiguration = sdkClient.serviceClientConfiguration()
-                        val retryMode = serviceClientConfiguration.overrideConfiguration().retryMode().orElse(RetryMode.defaultRetryMode())
                         val toolkitUserAgent = userAgent()
 
-                        val requestUserAgent = ApplyUserAgentStage.resolveClientUserAgent(
-                            toolkitUserAgent,
-                            null,
-                            clientType,
-                            null,
-                            null,
-                            retryMode.toString().lowercase()
+                        // no obvious clean way to do this and multiple people have wasted a lot of time here
+                        // what we really want is to have a dynamic SdkAdvancedClientOption#USER_AGENT_PREFIX,
+                        // but SDK only allows static values to be set on the client
+                        val requestUserAgent = "$toolkitUserAgent " + SdkUserAgentBuilder.buildClientUserAgentString(
+                            SystemUserAgent.getOrCreate(),
+                            SdkClientUserAgentProperties().apply {
+                                // assume default because it is very complicated to resolve
+                                putProperty(UserAgentConstant.RETRY_MODE, "standard")
+
+                                putProperty(UserAgentConstant.IO, clientType.name.lowercase())
+
+                                // can probably figure it out, but SDK default resolves as UNKNOWN anyways without our interceptor
+                                putProperty(UserAgentConstant.HTTP, "UNKNOWN")
+                            }
                         )
 
                         val overrideConfiguration = request.overrideConfiguration()
diff --git a/settings.gradle.kts b/settings.gradle.kts
index 6d90bba3ac9..b9e772a5303 100644
--- a/settings.gradle.kts
+++ b/settings.gradle.kts
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ buildscript {
     // match with version catalog, s3-build-cache has silent classpath conflict with codegen task
     // also since this is a settings plugin, we can't use a version catalog
     dependencies {
-        classpath(platform("software.amazon.awssdk:bom:2.26.25"))
+        classpath(platform("software.amazon.awssdk:bom:2.28.7"))
     }
 }