diff --git a/features/steps/security_pyyaml_dependency_steps.py b/features/steps/security_pyyaml_dependency_steps.py
index ef9e98579..6518557ff 100644
--- a/features/steps/security_pyyaml_dependency_steps.py
+++ b/features/steps/security_pyyaml_dependency_steps.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any
 
 from behave import given, then, when
+from packaging.version import parse as parse_version
 from behave.runner import Context
 
 
@@ -69,8 +70,8 @@ def step_read_pyyaml_dependency(context: Context) -> None:
 def step_pyyaml_minimum_version(context: Context, expected: str) -> None:
     """Assert that the PyYAML minimum version is >= expected version."""
     min_version = context.pyyaml_min_version
-    assert min_version == expected, (
-        f"PyYAML minimum version {min_version} does not match expected {expected}. "
+    assert parse_version(min_version) >= parse_version(expected), (
+        f"PyYAML minimum version {min_version} is less than required {expected}. "
         f"Dependency spec: {context.pyyaml_version_spec}"
     )
 
@@ -125,8 +126,25 @@ def _load_toml(content: bytes) -> dict[str, Any]:
         import tomllib
 
         return tomllib.loads(content.decode("utf-8"))
-    except ImportError:
+    except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover — Python <3.11
         # Fallback for older Python versions without tomllib
         import tomlkit
 
-        return tomlkit.parse(content.decode("utf-8")).unwrap()  # type: ignore[no-any-return]
+        parsed_doc = tomlkit.parse(content.decode("utf-8"))
+        return _toml_to_python(parsed_doc)
+
+
+def _toml_to_python(data: object) -> dict[str, Any]:
+    """Convert a TOML document from tomlkit (or tomllib) to plain Python dicts."""
+    if isinstance(data, dict):
+        def _flatten(d: dict[Any, Any]) -> dict[str, Any]:
+            result: dict[str, Any] = {}
+            for key, value in d.items():
+                if isinstance(value, dict):
+                    result[key] = _flatten(value)
+                else:
+                    result[key] = value
+            return result
+        return _flatten(data)
+    raise TypeError(f"Expected dict-like TOML table, got {type(data).__name__}")
+