diff --git a/src/extensions/mod_management/util/testModReference.ts b/src/extensions/mod_management/util/testModReference.ts
index 7ae5d45c4..01f83c4ec 100644
--- a/src/extensions/mod_management/util/testModReference.ts
+++ b/src/extensions/mod_management/util/testModReference.ts
@@ -86,7 +86,10 @@ export function coerceToSemver(version: string): string {
     }
   } else {
     if (coerceableRE.test(version)) {
-      const coerced = semver.coerce(version);
+      // Remove leading 0's from the version segments as that's
+      //  an illegal semantic versioning format/pattern
+      const sanitizedVersion = version.replace(/\b0+(\d)/g, '$1');
+      const coerced = semver.coerce(sanitizedVersion);
       if (coerced) {
         return coerced.version
       }