diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index e9b4532d78e..6dc5d9e14fe 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -336,6 +336,8 @@ Release 2.1.1-beta - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-9821. ClientId should have getMsb/getLsb methods. 
     (Tsuyoshi OZAWA via jing9)
 
+    HADOOP-9672. Upgrade Avro dependency to 1.7.4. (sandy via kihwal)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-project/pom.xml b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
index cac87b8fffa..7660ee8fb1b 100644
--- a/hadoop-project/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
@@ -593,7 +593,7 @@
       <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.avro</groupId>
         <artifactId>avro</artifactId>
-        <version>1.5.3</version>
+        <version>1.7.4</version>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
         <groupId>net.sf.kosmosfs</groupId>