diff --git a/refspec.c b/refspec.c
index 0775358d96..fb89bce1db 100644
--- a/refspec.c
+++ b/refspec.c
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ static int parse_refspec(struct refspec_item *item, const char *refspec, int fet
 		if (!*item->src)
 			return 0; /* negative refspecs must not be empty */
 		else if (llen == the_hash_algo->hexsz && !get_oid_hex(item->src, &unused))
-			return 0; /* negative refpsecs cannot be exact sha1 */
+			return 0; /* negative refspecs cannot be exact sha1 */
 		else if (!check_refname_format(item->src, flags))
 			; /* valid looking ref is ok */
 		else
diff --git a/remote-curl.c b/remote-curl.c
index 57a3e9db62..aba60d5712 100644
--- a/remote-curl.c
+++ b/remote-curl.c
@@ -1563,6 +1563,13 @@ int cmd_main(int argc, const char **argv)
 		goto cleanup;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * yuck, see 9e89dcb66a (builtin/ls-remote: fall back to SHA1 outside
+	 * of a repo, 2024-08-02)
+	 */
+	if (nongit)
+		repo_set_hash_algo(the_repository, GIT_HASH_DEFAULT);
+
 	options.verbosity = 1;
 	options.progress = !!isatty(2);
 	options.thin = 1;
diff --git a/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh b/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
index 73cf531580..a26b6c2844 100755
--- a/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
+++ b/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
@@ -782,4 +782,11 @@ test_expect_success 'tag following always works over v0 http' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'ls-remote outside repo does not segfault with fetch refspec' '
+	nongit git \
+		-c remote.origin.url="$HTTPD_URL/smart/repo.git" \
+		-c remote.origin.fetch=anything \
+		ls-remote origin
+'
+
 test_done