diff --git a/specinfra.gemspec b/specinfra.gemspec
index ba0c42021..363bc353e 100644
--- a/specinfra.gemspec
+++ b/specinfra.gemspec
@@ -18,10 +18,13 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.executables   = spec.files.grep(%r{^bin/}) { |f| File.basename(f) }
   spec.test_files    = spec.files.grep(%r{^(test|spec|features)/})
   spec.require_paths = ["lib"]
+  # TODO: at some point pin to a minumum version of ruby to reduce support burden in a major version bump
+  # spec.required_ruby_version  = '>= 2.3.0'
 
   spec.add_runtime_dependency "net-scp"
   spec.add_runtime_dependency "net-ssh", ">= 2.7"
-  spec.add_runtime_dependency "net-telnet"
+  # TODO: remove the lock when you want to ruby ruby < 2.3 support
+  spec.add_runtime_dependency "net-telnet", "0.1.1"
   spec.add_runtime_dependency "sfl"
 
   spec.add_development_dependency "bundler", "~> 1.3"