diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 3c597c2831a..90ff1cb0ece 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -142,6 +142,8 @@ Release 2.0.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-8280. Move VersionUtil/TestVersionUtil and GenericTestUtils from
     HDFS into Common. (Ahmed Radwan via atm)
 
+    HADOOP-8117. Upgrade test build to Surefire 2.12 (todd)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-project/pom.xml b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
index 2e0892b1988..d3f079867d9 100644
--- a/hadoop-project/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
@@ -671,7 +671,7 @@
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>2.10</version>
+          <version>2.12</version>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>