diff --git a/lucene/CHANGES.txt b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
index 0142f465af4..8365017c240 100644
--- a/lucene/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
@@ -151,6 +151,11 @@ Other
   current classloader that defined the interface class (lucene-core.jar).
   See MIGRATE.txt for more information!  (Uwe Schindler, Dawid Weiss)
 
+* LUCENE-7883: Lucene no longer uses the context class loader when resolving
+  resources in CustomAnalyzer or ClassPathResourceLoader. Resources are only
+  resolved against Lucene's class loader by default. Please use another builder
+  method to change to a custom classloader.  (Uwe Schindler)
+
 ======================= Lucene 6.7.0 =======================
 
 New Features
diff --git a/lucene/MIGRATE.txt b/lucene/MIGRATE.txt
index 089d196ba9a..e7edcc53a1e 100644
--- a/lucene/MIGRATE.txt
+++ b/lucene/MIGRATE.txt
@@ -35,12 +35,19 @@ If you are migrating your project to Java 9 Jigsaw module system, keep in mind
 that Lucene currently does not yet support `module-info.java` declarations of
 service provider impls (`provides` statement). It is therefore recommended
 to keep all of Lucene in one Uber-Module and not try to split Lucene into
-several modules. As soon as Lucene will migrate to Java 9 as minimum requirement,
-we will work on improving that.
+several modules. As soon as Lucene will migrate to Java 9 as minimum
+requirement, we will work on improving that.
 
 For OSGI, the same applies. You have to create a bundle with all of Lucene for
 SPI to work correctly.
 
+## CustomAnalyzer resources (LUCENE-7883)##
+
+Lucene no longer uses the context class loader when resolving resources in
+CustomAnalyzer or ClassPathResourceLoader. Resources are only resolved
+against Lucene's class loader by default. Please use another builder method
+to change to a custom classloader.
+
 ## Query.hashCode and Query.equals are now abstract methods (LUCENE-7277)
 
 Any custom query subclasses should redeclare equivalence relationship according
diff --git a/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/custom/CustomAnalyzer.java b/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/custom/CustomAnalyzer.java
index 1cfdfe37979..a697cced51a 100644
--- a/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/custom/CustomAnalyzer.java
+++ b/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/custom/CustomAnalyzer.java
@@ -76,17 +76,21 @@ import org.apache.lucene.util.Version;
  */
 public final class CustomAnalyzer extends Analyzer {
   
-  /** Returns a builder for custom analyzers that loads all resources from classpath.
-   * All path names given must be absolute with package prefixes. */
+  /**
+   * Returns a builder for custom analyzers that loads all resources from
+   * Lucene's classloader. All path names given must be absolute with package prefixes. 
+   */
   public static Builder builder() {
-    return builder(new ClasspathResourceLoader());
+    return builder(new ClasspathResourceLoader(CustomAnalyzer.class.getClassLoader()));
   }
   
-  /** Returns a builder for custom analyzers that loads all resources from the given
+  /** 
+   * Returns a builder for custom analyzers that loads all resources from the given
    * file system base directory. Place, e.g., stop word files there.
-   * Files that are not in the given directory are loaded from classpath. */
+   * Files that are not in the given directory are loaded from Lucene's classloader.
+   */
   public static Builder builder(Path configDir) {
-    return builder(new FilesystemResourceLoader(configDir));
+    return builder(new FilesystemResourceLoader(configDir, CustomAnalyzer.class.getClassLoader()));
   }
   
   /** Returns a builder for custom analyzers that loads all resources using the given {@link ResourceLoader}. */
diff --git a/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/ClasspathResourceLoader.java b/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/ClasspathResourceLoader.java
index 3653e7f5ffe..4ee9212949a 100644
--- a/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/ClasspathResourceLoader.java
+++ b/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/ClasspathResourceLoader.java
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ package org.apache.lucene.analysis.util;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.util.SuppressForbidden;
+
 /**
  * Simple {@link ResourceLoader} that uses {@link ClassLoader#getResourceAsStream(String)}
  * and {@link Class#forName(String,boolean,ClassLoader)} to open resources and
@@ -30,9 +32,17 @@ public final class ClasspathResourceLoader implements ResourceLoader {
   private final ClassLoader loader;
   
   /**
-   * Creates an instance using the context classloader to load Resources and classes.
+   * Creates an instance using the context classloader to load resources and classes.
    * Resource paths must be absolute.
+   * 
+   * @deprecated You should not use this ctor, because it uses the thread's context
+   * class loader, which is bad programming style. Please specify a reference class or
+   * a {@link ClassLoader} instead.
+   * @see #ClasspathResourceLoader(ClassLoader)
+   * @see #ClasspathResourceLoader(Class)
    */
+  @Deprecated
+  @SuppressForbidden(reason = "Deprecated method uses thread's context classloader, but there for backwards compatibility")
   public ClasspathResourceLoader() {
     this(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());
   }
diff --git a/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/FilesystemResourceLoader.java b/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/FilesystemResourceLoader.java
index 39703865029..4fbaa6d94b5 100644
--- a/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/FilesystemResourceLoader.java
+++ b/lucene/analysis/common/src/java/org/apache/lucene/analysis/util/FilesystemResourceLoader.java
@@ -46,11 +46,27 @@ public final class FilesystemResourceLoader implements ResourceLoader {
    * base directory (may be {@code null} to refer to CWD).
    * Files not found in file system and class lookups are delegated to context
    * classloader.
+   * 
+   * @deprecated You should not use this ctor, because it uses the thread's context
+   * class loader as fallback for resource lookups, which is bad programming style.
+   * Please specify a {@link ClassLoader} instead.
+   * @see #FilesystemResourceLoader(Path, ClassLoader)
    */
+  @Deprecated
   public FilesystemResourceLoader(Path baseDirectory) {
     this(baseDirectory, new ClasspathResourceLoader());
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Creates a resource loader that resolves resources against the given
+   * base directory (may be {@code null} to refer to CWD).
+   * Files not found in file system and class lookups are delegated to context
+   * classloader.
+   */
+  public FilesystemResourceLoader(Path baseDirectory, ClassLoader delegate) {
+    this(baseDirectory, new ClasspathResourceLoader(delegate));
+  }
+
   /**
    * Creates a resource loader that resolves resources against the given
    * base directory (may be {@code null} to refer to CWD).
diff --git a/lucene/tools/forbiddenApis/base.txt b/lucene/tools/forbiddenApis/base.txt
index 1bb8118de15..5eb3d3868b5 100644
--- a/lucene/tools/forbiddenApis/base.txt
+++ b/lucene/tools/forbiddenApis/base.txt
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@ java.util.Properties#load(java.io.InputStream)
 java.util.Properties#save(java.io.OutputStream,java.lang.String)
 java.util.Properties#store(java.io.OutputStream,java.lang.String)
 
+@defaultMessage The context classloader should never be used for resource lookups, unless there is a 3rd party library that needs it. Always pass a classloader down as method parameters.
+java.lang.Thread#getContextClassLoader()
+java.lang.Thread#setContextClassLoader(java.lang.ClassLoader)
+
 java.lang.Character#codePointBefore(char[],int) @ Implicit start offset is error-prone when the char[] is a buffer and the first chars are random chars
 java.lang.Character#codePointAt(char[],int) @ Implicit end offset is error-prone when the char[] is a buffer and the last chars are random chars
 
diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 8494aeec80d..71dfa6a46f9 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -309,6 +309,10 @@ Other Changes
   option to PointsField to ignore 'precisionStep' attribute.  This change also begins to attempt to randomize
   'docValues' on numeric field types unless tests explicity enable/disable them. (hossman, Steve Rowe)
 
+* LUCENE-7883: Solr no longer uses the context class loader when resolving
+  resources, they are only resolved against Solr's own or "core" class loader
+  by default.  (Uwe Schindler)
+
 ==================  6.7.0 ==================
 
 Consult the LUCENE_CHANGES.txt file for additional, low level, changes in this release.
diff --git a/solr/contrib/clustering/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/clustering/carrot2/CarrotClusteringEngine.java b/solr/contrib/clustering/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/clustering/carrot2/CarrotClusteringEngine.java
index 951cce5c4b0..33cbb64dd0f 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/clustering/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/clustering/carrot2/CarrotClusteringEngine.java
+++ b/solr/contrib/clustering/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/clustering/carrot2/CarrotClusteringEngine.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.function.Supplier;
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang.ObjectUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@ import org.apache.solr.common.params.HighlightParams;
 import org.apache.solr.common.params.SolrParams;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.NamedList;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.SimpleOrderedMap;
+import org.apache.solr.common.util.SuppressForbidden;
 import org.apache.solr.core.SolrCore;
 import org.apache.solr.handler.clustering.ClusteringEngine;
 import org.apache.solr.handler.clustering.SearchClusteringEngine;
@@ -162,21 +164,17 @@ public class CarrotClusteringEngine extends SearchClusteringEngine {
               + Arrays.toString(attributeXmls));
         }
 
-        Thread ct = Thread.currentThread();
-        ClassLoader prev = ct.getContextClassLoader();
-        try {
-          ct.setContextClassLoader(core.getResourceLoader().getClassLoader());
-
-          AttributeValueSets avs = AttributeValueSets.deserialize(attributeXmls[0].open());
-          AttributeValueSet defaultSet = avs.getDefaultAttributeValueSet();
-          initAttributes.putAll(defaultSet.getAttributeValues());
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-          throw new SolrException(ErrorCode.SERVER_ERROR, 
-              "Could not read attributes XML for clustering component: " 
-                  + componentName, e);
-        } finally {
-          ct.setContextClassLoader(prev);
-        }
+        withContextClassLoader(core.getResourceLoader().getClassLoader(), () -> {
+          try {
+            AttributeValueSets avs = AttributeValueSets.deserialize(attributeXmls[0].open());
+            AttributeValueSet defaultSet = avs.getDefaultAttributeValueSet();
+            initAttributes.putAll(defaultSet.getAttributeValues());
+          } catch (Exception e) {
+            throw new SolrException(ErrorCode.SERVER_ERROR, 
+                "Could not read attributes XML for clustering component: " + componentName, e);
+          }
+          return null;
+        });
       }
     }
 
@@ -205,14 +203,7 @@ public class CarrotClusteringEngine extends SearchClusteringEngine {
     // certain classes (e.g. custom tokenizer/stemmer) at initialization time.
     // To make sure classes from contrib JARs are available,
     // we swap the context class loader for the time of clustering.
-    Thread ct = Thread.currentThread();
-    ClassLoader prev = ct.getContextClassLoader();
-    try {
-      ct.setContextClassLoader(core.getResourceLoader().getClassLoader());
-      this.controller.init(initAttributes);
-    } finally {
-      ct.setContextClassLoader(prev);
-    }
+    withContextClassLoader(core.getResourceLoader().getClassLoader(), () -> this.controller.init(initAttributes));
 
     SchemaField uniqueField = core.getLatestSchema().getUniqueKeyField();
     if (uniqueField == null) {
@@ -246,15 +237,9 @@ public class CarrotClusteringEngine extends SearchClusteringEngine {
       // certain classes (e.g. custom tokenizer/stemmer) at runtime.
       // To make sure classes from contrib JARs are available,
       // we swap the context class loader for the time of clustering.
-      Thread ct = Thread.currentThread();
-      ClassLoader prev = ct.getContextClassLoader();
-      try {
-        ct.setContextClassLoader(core.getResourceLoader().getClassLoader());
-        return clustersToNamedList(controller.process(attributes,
-                clusteringAlgorithmClass).getClusters(), sreq.getParams());
-      } finally {
-        ct.setContextClassLoader(prev);
-      }
+      return withContextClassLoader(core.getResourceLoader().getClassLoader(),
+          () -> clustersToNamedList(controller.process(attributes,
+              clusteringAlgorithmClass).getClusters(), sreq.getParams()));
     } catch (Exception e) {
       log.error("Carrot2 clustering failed", e);
       throw new SolrException(ErrorCode.SERVER_ERROR, "Carrot2 clustering failed", e);
@@ -562,4 +547,17 @@ public class CarrotClusteringEngine extends SearchClusteringEngine {
       }
     }
   }
+  
+  @SuppressForbidden(reason = "Uses context class loader as a workaround to inject correct classloader to 3rd party libs")
+  private static <T> T withContextClassLoader(ClassLoader loader, Supplier<T> action) {
+    Thread ct = Thread.currentThread();
+    ClassLoader prev = ct.getContextClassLoader();
+    try {
+      ct.setContextClassLoader(loader);
+      return action.get();
+    } finally {
+      ct.setContextClassLoader(prev);
+    }
+  }
+
 }
diff --git a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler-extras/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/MailEntityProcessor.java b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler-extras/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/MailEntityProcessor.java
index d4418daec81..f7ad22f7e4b 100644
--- a/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler-extras/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/MailEntityProcessor.java
+++ b/solr/contrib/dataimporthandler-extras/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/dataimport/MailEntityProcessor.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package org.apache.solr.handler.dataimport;
 
 import com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPMessage;
 
+import org.apache.solr.common.util.SuppressForbidden;
 import org.apache.solr.handler.dataimport.config.ConfigNameConstants;
 import org.apache.solr.util.RTimer;
 import org.apache.tika.Tika;
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@ import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;
 import java.text.ParseException;
 import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 import java.util.*;
+import java.util.function.Supplier;
 
 import com.sun.mail.gimap.GmailFolder;
 import com.sun.mail.gimap.GmailRawSearchTerm;
@@ -213,7 +215,14 @@ public class MailEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
   
   private Message getNextMail() {
     if (!connected) {
-      if (!connectToMailBox()) return null;
+      // this is needed to load the activation mail stuff correctly
+      // otherwise, the JavaMail multipart support doesn't get configured
+      // correctly, which leads to a class cast exception when processing
+      // multipart messages: IMAPInputStream cannot be cast to
+      // javax.mail.Multipart    
+      if (false == withContextClassLoader(getClass().getClassLoader(), this::connectToMailBox)) {
+        return null;
+      }
       connected = true;
     }
     if (folderIter == null) {
@@ -358,13 +367,6 @@ public class MailEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
   }
   
   private boolean connectToMailBox() {
-    // this is needed to load the activation mail stuff correctly
-    // otherwise, the JavaMail multipart support doesn't get configured
-    // correctly, which leads to a class cast exception when processing
-    // multipart messages: IMAPInputStream cannot be cast to
-    // javax.mail.Multipart
-    Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(getClass().getClassLoader());
-    
     try {
       Properties props = new Properties();
       if (System.getProperty("mail.debug") != null) 
@@ -870,4 +872,17 @@ public class MailEntityProcessor extends EntityProcessorBase {
     }
     return v;
   }
+
+  @SuppressForbidden(reason = "Uses context class loader as a workaround to inject correct classloader to 3rd party libs")
+  private static <T> T withContextClassLoader(ClassLoader loader, Supplier<T> action) {
+    Thread ct = Thread.currentThread();
+    ClassLoader prev = ct.getContextClassLoader();
+    try {
+      ct.setContextClassLoader(loader);
+      return action.get();
+    } finally {
+      ct.setContextClassLoader(prev);
+    }
+  }
+  
 }
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrResourceLoader.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrResourceLoader.java
index 17cdbbc2919..ef79875071d 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrResourceLoader.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrResourceLoader.java
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ public class SolrResourceLoader implements ResourceLoader,Closeable
 
   /**
    * <p>
-   * This loader will delegate to the context classloader when possible,
+   * This loader will delegate to Solr's classloader when possible,
    * otherwise it will attempt to resolve resources using any jar files
    * found in the "lib/" directory in the specified instance directory.
    * </p>
@@ -162,9 +162,10 @@ public class SolrResourceLoader implements ResourceLoader,Closeable
       log.debug("new SolrResourceLoader for directory: '{}'", this.instanceDir);
     }
 
-    if (parent == null)
-      parent = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
-    this.classLoader = new URLClassLoader(new URL[0], parent);
+    if (parent == null) {
+      parent = getClass().getClassLoader();
+    }
+    this.classLoader = URLClassLoader.newInstance(new URL[0], parent);
 
     /* 
      * Skip the lib subdirectory when we are loading from the solr home.
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CollectionsHandler.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CollectionsHandler.java
index 9a3fe00fd2d..3f2eb5f048c 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CollectionsHandler.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/admin/CollectionsHandler.java
@@ -357,11 +357,11 @@ public class CollectionsHandler extends RequestHandlerBase implements Permission
 
     try {
       String path = ZkStateReader.CONFIGS_ZKNODE + "/" + SYSTEM_COLL + "/schema.xml";
-      byte[] data = IOUtils.toByteArray(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("SystemCollectionSchema.xml"));
+      byte[] data = IOUtils.toByteArray(CollectionsHandler.class.getResourceAsStream("/SystemCollectionSchema.xml"));
       assert data != null && data.length > 0;
       cmdExecutor.ensureExists(path, data, CreateMode.PERSISTENT, zk);
       path = ZkStateReader.CONFIGS_ZKNODE + "/" + SYSTEM_COLL + "/solrconfig.xml";
-      data = IOUtils.toByteArray(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("SystemCollectionSolrConfig.xml"));
+      data = IOUtils.toByteArray(CollectionsHandler.class.getResourceAsStream("/SystemCollectionSolrConfig.xml"));
       assert data != null && data.length > 0;
       cmdExecutor.ensureExists(path, data, CreateMode.PERSISTENT, zk);
     } catch (IOException e) {
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/servlet/SolrDispatchFilter.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/servlet/SolrDispatchFilter.java
index e58a3d86da8..cdf3ce855f2 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/servlet/SolrDispatchFilter.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/servlet/SolrDispatchFilter.java
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ public class SolrDispatchFilter extends BaseSolrFilter {
    */
   public static NodeConfig loadNodeConfig(Path solrHome, Properties nodeProperties) {
 
-    SolrResourceLoader loader = new SolrResourceLoader(solrHome, null, nodeProperties);
+    SolrResourceLoader loader = new SolrResourceLoader(solrHome, SolrDispatchFilter.class.getClassLoader(), nodeProperties);
     if (!StringUtils.isEmpty(System.getProperty("solr.solrxml.location"))) {
       log.warn("Solr property solr.solrxml.location is no longer supported. " +
                "Will automatically load solr.xml from ZooKeeper if it exists");
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/SolrCLI.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/SolrCLI.java
index 51ab5d7f5dd..c207dcf1c4c 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/SolrCLI.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/SolrCLI.java
@@ -486,7 +486,7 @@ public class SolrCLI {
   private static List<Class<Tool>> findToolClassesInPackage(String packageName) {
     List<Class<Tool>> toolClasses = new ArrayList<Class<Tool>>();
     try {
-      ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
+      ClassLoader classLoader = SolrCLI.class.getClassLoader();
       String path = packageName.replace('.', '/');
       Enumeration<URL> resources = classLoader.getResources(path);
       Set<String> classes = new TreeSet<String>();
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java
index 2949e2e5bc4..cbef887f2a2 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/TestCoreContainer.java
@@ -241,8 +241,8 @@ public class TestCoreContainer extends SolrTestCaseJ4 {
     final CoreContainer cc = init(CONFIGSETS_SOLR_XML);
     try {
       ClassLoader sharedLoader = cc.loader.getClassLoader();
-      ClassLoader contextLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
-      assertSame(contextLoader, sharedLoader.getParent());
+      ClassLoader baseLoader = SolrResourceLoader.class.getClassLoader();
+      assertSame(baseLoader, sharedLoader.getParent());
 
       SolrCore core1 = cc.create("core1", ImmutableMap.of("configSet", "minimal"));
       ClassLoader coreLoader = core1.getResourceLoader().getClassLoader();
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/Utils.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/Utils.java
index 1da5af60361..fbfc4a120e7 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/Utils.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/Utils.java
@@ -193,8 +193,7 @@ public class Utils {
   }
 
   public static Object fromJSONResource(String resourceName){
-   return fromJSON(Thread.currentThread()
-        .getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(resourceName));
+   return fromJSON(Utils.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(resourceName));
 
   }
   public static JSONParser getJSONParser(Reader reader){
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ValidatingJsonMap.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ValidatingJsonMap.java
index eef3823f2f4..4edef90b43d 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ValidatingJsonMap.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/util/ValidatingJsonMap.java
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ public class ValidatingJsonMap implements Map<String, Object> {
   }
 
   public static ValidatingJsonMap parse(String resourceName, String includeLocation) {
-    InputStream is = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(resourceName);
+    InputStream is = ValidatingJsonMap.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(resourceName);
     if (is == null)
       throw new RuntimeException("invalid API spec: " + resourceName);
     ValidatingJsonMap map = null;
diff --git a/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java b/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java
index 149745770f3..09a7ca19845 100644
--- a/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java
+++ b/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java
@@ -1891,7 +1891,7 @@ public abstract class SolrTestCaseJ4 extends LuceneTestCase {
    * {@link Class#getResourceAsStream} using {@code this.getClass()}.
    */
   public static File getFile(String name) {
-    final URL url = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource(name.replace(File.separatorChar, '/'));
+    final URL url = SolrTestCaseJ4.class.getClassLoader().getResource(name.replace(File.separatorChar, '/'));
     if (url != null) {
       try {
         return new File(url.toURI());
diff --git a/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/ExternalPaths.java b/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/ExternalPaths.java
index e5a83efc4aa..1ebb2e962cc 100644
--- a/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/ExternalPaths.java
+++ b/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/ExternalPaths.java
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ public class ExternalPaths {
       try {
         file = new File("solr/conf");
         if (!file.exists()) {
-          file = new File(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource("solr/conf").toURI());
+          file = new File(ExternalPaths.class.getClassLoader().getResource("solr/conf").toURI());
         }
       } catch (Exception e) {
         // If there is no "solr/conf" in the classpath, fall back to searching from the current directory.