diff --git a/gnu/local.mk b/gnu/local.mk
index 54217fbd5a..13e7d1af72 100644
--- a/gnu/local.mk
+++ b/gnu/local.mk
@@ -2023,7 +2023,6 @@ dist_patch_DATA =						\
   %D%/packages/patches/tofi-32bit-compat.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/tootle-glib-object-naming.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/tootle-reason-phrase.patch		\
-  %D%/packages/patches/tor-remove-defensive-assert.patch 	\
   %D%/packages/patches/transcode-ffmpeg.patch	\
   %D%/packages/patches/transfig-gcc10-fno-common.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/trytond-add-egg-modules-to-path.patch	\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/patches/tor-remove-defensive-assert.patch b/gnu/packages/patches/tor-remove-defensive-assert.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 7207ec867a..0000000000
--- a/gnu/packages/patches/tor-remove-defensive-assert.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-This patch removes a call to `tor_assert_nonfatal_unreached()` in
-`relay_key_is_unavailable_()` that is only called when Tor is compiled
-without relay support.
-
-Unfortunately, the non-fatal assertion causes a BUG log
-message to appear for clients when they start up without relay support
-for each CPU worker we spawn. This makes it spotting issues during
-bootstrap harder particularly for our iOS developers.
-
-Since the call sites to `get_master_identity_key()` handles `NULL`
-values already, we do not think this will be an issue later on.
-
-Reported by Benjamin Erhart (@tla) from Guardian Project.
-
-Fixes tpo/core/tor#40848.
-
-diff --git a/src/feature/relay/routerkeys.h b/src/feature/relay/routerkeys.h
-index 7b6d80773c..b97615a9c9 100644
---- a/src/feature/relay/routerkeys.h
-+++ b/src/feature/relay/routerkeys.h
-@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ void routerkeys_free_all(void);
- static inline void *
- relay_key_is_unavailable_(void)
- {
--  tor_assert_nonfatal_unreached();
-   return NULL;
- }
- #define relay_key_is_unavailable(type) \
diff --git a/gnu/packages/tor.scm b/gnu/packages/tor.scm
index 44e62b63cc..1eb62a950e 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/tor.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/tor.scm
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ;;; GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU
 ;;; Copyright © 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
 ;;; Copyright © 2014, 2015 Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
-;;; Copyright © 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il>
+;;; Copyright © 2016-2018, 2020-2023 Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il>
 ;;; Copyright © 2016, 2017 Nikita <nikita@n0.is>
 ;;; Copyright © 2017–2021 Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr>
 ;;; Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023 Eric Bavier <bavier@posteo.net>
@@ -63,15 +63,14 @@
 (define-public tor
   (package
     (name "tor")
-    (version "0.4.8.5")
+    (version "0.4.8.6")
     (source (origin
              (method url-fetch)
              (uri (string-append "https://dist.torproject.org/tor-"
                                  version ".tar.gz"))
              (sha256
               (base32
-               "06g1awb4piqvgxa97pyswxgjzkpj8rx3iy2jbiaygvi99b8wymv9"))
-             (patches (search-patches "tor-remove-defensive-assert.patch"))))
+               "122h6l3nh8xrpzkmn4alsbz30jw8nxivwnhgnp97qv7nr9gqjbam"))))
     (build-system gnu-build-system)
     (arguments
      (list #:configure-flags