diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 1341f216f6e43..0b59b9a775051 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -89,12 +89,12 @@ flexible messaging model and an intuitive client API.</description>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
     <redirectTestOutputToFile>true</redirectTestOutputToFile>
-    <test.additional.args></test.additional.args>
+    <test.additional.args/>
     <testReuseFork>true</testReuseFork>
     <testForkCount>4</testForkCount>
     <testRealAWS>false</testRealAWS>
     <testRetryCount>1</testRetryCount>
-    <testJacocoAgentArgument></testJacocoAgentArgument>
+    <testJacocoAgentArgument/>
     <docker.organization>apachepulsar</docker.organization>
     <skipSourceReleaseAssembly>false</skipSourceReleaseAssembly>
     <skipBuildDistribution>false</skipBuildDistribution>
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ flexible messaging model and an intuitive client API.</description>
     <snakeyaml.version>2.0</snakeyaml.version>
     <ant.version>1.10.12</ant.version>
     <seancfoley.ipaddress.version>5.3.3</seancfoley.ipaddress.version>
-    <netty-reactive-streams.version>2.0.6</netty-reactive-streams.version>
+    <netty-reactive-streams.version>2.0.18</netty-reactive-streams.version>
     <zstd-jni.version>1.5.2-3</zstd-jni.version>
 
     <!-- test dependencies -->