diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/12064-cargo-latest-version-regex.yml b/changelogs/fragments/12064-cargo-latest-version-regex.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cfc548224f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/12064-cargo-latest-version-regex.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "cargo - fix ``state=latest`` always reporting ``changed`` due to greedy regex capturing description text instead of version string
+    (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/8949,
+    https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/12064)."
diff --git a/plugins/modules/cargo.py b/plugins/modules/cargo.py
index 68c8ad4f55..98c885908c 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/cargo.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/cargo.py
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ class Cargo:
         cmd = ["search", name, "--limit", "1"]
         data, dummy = self._exec(cmd, True, False, False)
 
-        match = re.search(r'"(.+)"', data)
+        match = re.search(r"^" + re.escape(name) + r'\s*=\s*"([^"]+)"', data, re.MULTILINE)
         if not match:
             self.module.fail_json(msg=f"No published version for package {name} found")
         return match.group(1)