diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng4274PluginRealmArtifactsTest.java b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng4274PluginRealmArtifactsTest.java
index d0e4d45933..067a98fc30 100644
--- a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng4274PluginRealmArtifactsTest.java
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng4274PluginRealmArtifactsTest.java
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@ import org.apache.maven.it.Verifier;
 import org.apache.maven.it.util.ResourceExtractor;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.util.Arrays;
-import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 /**
@@ -38,7 +36,7 @@ public class MavenITmng4274PluginRealmArtifactsTest
 
     public MavenITmng4274PluginRealmArtifactsTest()
     {
-        super( "[2.0.6,)" );
+        super( "[3.0-alpha-3,)" );
     }
 
     /**
@@ -53,15 +51,20 @@ public class MavenITmng4274PluginRealmArtifactsTest
 
         Verifier verifier = new Verifier( testDir.getAbsolutePath() );
         verifier.setAutoclean( false );
+        verifier.deleteDirectory( "target" );
+        verifier.deleteArtifact( "org.apache.maven", "maven-core", "2.0.4274", "jar" );
+        verifier.deleteArtifact( "org.apache.maven", "maven-core", "2.0.4274", "pom" );
+        verifier.deleteArtifact( "org.codehaus.plexus", "plexus-utils", "1.1.4274", "jar" );
+        verifier.deleteArtifact( "org.codehaus.plexus", "plexus-utils", "1.1.4274", "pom" );
+        verifier.filterFile( "settings-template.xml", "settings.xml", "UTF-8", verifier.newDefaultFilterProperties() );
+        verifier.getCliOptions().add( "-s" );
+        verifier.getCliOptions().add( "settings.xml" );
         verifier.executeGoal( "validate" );
         verifier.verifyErrorFreeLog();
         verifier.resetStreams();
 
         Properties props = verifier.loadProperties( "target/class.properties" );
-        String prop = props.getProperty( "org.codehaus.plexus.util.Expand.methods", "" );
-        Collection methods = Arrays.asList( prop.split( "," ) );
-        assertTrue( methods.toString(), methods.contains( "normalize" ) );
-        assertTrue( methods.toString(), methods.contains( "resolveFile" ) );
+        assertNotNull( props.getProperty( "org.apache.maven.its.mng4274.CoreIt" ) );
     }
 
 }
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/pom.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/pom.xml
index d00719402c..d09bc5373b 100644
--- a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/pom.xml
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/pom.xml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ under the License.
   <groupId>org.apache.maven.its.mng4274</groupId>
   <artifactId>test</artifactId>
   <version>0.1</version>
-  <packaging>maven-plugin</packaging>
+  <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <name>Maven Integration Test :: MNG-4274</name>
   <description>
@@ -42,16 +42,16 @@ under the License.
         <version>2.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
         <dependencies>
           <dependency>
-            <!-- NOTE: This depends on plexus-utils:1.0.4 -->
+            <!-- NOTE: This has a dependency on our plexus-utils stub version 1.1.4274 -->
             <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
-            <artifactId>maven-project</artifactId>
-            <version>2.0</version>
+            <artifactId>maven-core</artifactId>
+            <version>2.0.4274</version>
           </dependency>
         </dependencies>
         <configuration>
           <pluginClassLoaderOutput>target/class.properties</pluginClassLoaderOutput>
-          <!-- NOTE: In newer version of plexus-utils, methods have been removed from this class -->
-          <classNames>org.codehaus.plexus.util.Expand</classNames>
+          <!-- This class is provided by our plexus-utils stub -->
+          <classNames>org.apache.maven.its.mng4274.CoreIt</classNames>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/2.0.4274/maven-core-2.0.4274.jar b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/2.0.4274/maven-core-2.0.4274.jar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1fa2da239e
Binary files /dev/null and b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/2.0.4274/maven-core-2.0.4274.jar differ
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/2.0.4274/maven-core-2.0.4274.pom b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/2.0.4274/maven-core-2.0.4274.pom
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8cc9c73b28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/2.0.4274/maven-core-2.0.4274.pom
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
+<project>
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
+  <artifactId>maven-core</artifactId>
+  <version>2.0.4274</version>
+  <packaging>jar</packaging>
+
+  <name>Maven Integration Test :: MNG-4274 :: Maven Core Stub</name>
+  <description>
+    A stub version of some Maven core artifact, i.e. an artifact to be excluded from a plugin realm, that itself
+    depends on the stub version of plexus-utils. This mimics the dependency of maven-project:2.0 on
+    plexus-utils:1.0.4 for instance.
+  </description>
+
+  <distributionManagement>
+    <repository>
+      <id>maven-core-it</id>
+      <url>file:///${basedir}/repo</url>
+    </repository>
+  </distributionManagement>
+
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
+      <artifactId>plexus-utils</artifactId>
+      <version>1.1.4274</version>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+</project>
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/maven-metadata.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/maven-metadata.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0c31c45fba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/apache/maven/maven-core/maven-metadata.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<metadata>
+  <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
+  <artifactId>maven-core</artifactId>
+  <version>2.0.4274</version>
+  <versioning>
+    <release>2.0.4274</release>
+    <versions>
+      <version>2.0.4274</version>
+    </versions>
+    <lastUpdated>20090802122327</lastUpdated>
+  </versioning>
+</metadata>
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1.4274/plexus-utils-1.1.4274.jar b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1.4274/plexus-utils-1.1.4274.jar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9a272e429f
Binary files /dev/null and b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1.4274/plexus-utils-1.1.4274.jar differ
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1.4274/plexus-utils-1.1.4274.pom b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1.4274/plexus-utils-1.1.4274.pom
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f05fd85ec0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1.4274/plexus-utils-1.1.4274.pom
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
+<project>
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
+  <artifactId>plexus-utils</artifactId>
+  <version>1.1.4274</version>
+  <packaging>jar</packaging>
+
+  <name>Maven Integration Test :: MNG-4274 :: Plexus Utils Stub</name>
+  <description>
+    A stub version of plexus-utils, must have the same groupId:artifactId as the real thing.
+  </description>
+
+  <distributionManagement>
+    <repository>
+      <id>maven-core-it</id>
+      <url>file:///${basedir}/repo</url>
+    </repository>
+  </distributionManagement>
+
+  <build>
+    <resources>
+      <resource>
+        <directory>.</directory>
+        <includes>
+          <include>pom.xml</include>
+          <include>src/**</include>
+        </includes>
+      </resource>
+      <resource>
+        <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
+      </resource>
+    </resources>
+  </build>
+</project>
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/maven-metadata.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/maven-metadata.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..87f191e6d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/repo/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/maven-metadata.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<metadata>
+  <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
+  <artifactId>plexus-utils</artifactId>
+  <version>1.1.4274</version>
+  <versioning>
+    <release>1.1.4274</release>
+    <versions>
+      <version>1.1.4274</version>
+    </versions>
+    <lastUpdated>20090802121446</lastUpdated>
+  </versioning>
+</metadata>
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/settings-template.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/settings-template.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..408c5ccd9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-4274/settings-template.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<settings>
+  <profiles>
+    <profile>
+      <id>maven-core-it-repo</id>
+      <repositories>
+        <repository>
+          <id>maven-core-it</id>
+          <url>@baseurl@/repo</url>
+          <releases>
+            <checksumPolicy>ignore</checksumPolicy>
+          </releases>
+          <snapshots>
+            <enabled>false</enabled>
+          </snapshots>
+        </repository>
+      </repositories>
+      <pluginRepositories>
+        <pluginRepository>
+          <id>maven-core-it</id>
+          <url>@baseurl@/repo</url>
+          <releases>
+            <checksumPolicy>ignore</checksumPolicy>
+          </releases>
+          <snapshots>
+            <enabled>false</enabled>
+          </snapshots>
+        </pluginRepository>
+      </pluginRepositories>
+    </profile>
+  </profiles>
+  <activeProfiles>
+    <activeProfile>maven-core-it-repo</activeProfile>
+  </activeProfiles>
+</settings>