diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 7e24a3fc68..c5782bb22c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>2.5.1</version>
+          <version>3.1</version>
           <configuration>
             <source>1.6</source>
             <target>1.6</target>
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>2.12</version>
+          <version>2.16</version>
           <configuration>
             <argLine>-Xmx256m</argLine>
           </configuration>
@@ -450,7 +450,7 @@
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.rat</groupId>
           <artifactId>apache-rat-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>0.10</version>
+          <version>0.10</version><!-- TODO remove when upgrading parent to 24 -->
           <configuration>
             <excludes>
               <exclude>src/test/resources*/**</exclude>
@@ -465,7 +465,7 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
         <artifactId>animal-sniffer-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>1.6</version>
+        <version>1.9</version>
         <configuration>
           <signature>
             <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo.signature</groupId>
@@ -590,7 +590,7 @@
           <plugin>
             <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
             <artifactId>maven-jxr-plugin</artifactId>
-            <version>2.3</version>
+            <version>2.4</version>
             <reportSets>
               <reportSet>
                 <id>aggregate</id>