diff --git a/elemental-parent/pom.xml b/elemental-parent/pom.xml
index 0dea922d7b..6ad8bc62d6 100644
--- a/elemental-parent/pom.xml
+++ b/elemental-parent/pom.xml
@@ -95,8 +95,8 @@
         <sonar.moduleKey>${project.groupId}:${project.artifactId}</sonar.moduleKey>
 
         <!-- Dependencies -->
-        <junit.platform.version>1.13.3</junit.platform.version>
-        <junit.jupiter.version>5.13.3</junit.jupiter.version>
+        <junit.platform.version>1.14.0</junit.platform.version>
+        <junit.jupiter.version>5.14.0</junit.jupiter.version>
         <objenesis.version>3.4</objenesis.version>
         <jaxb.api.version>3.0.1</jaxb.api.version>
         <jaxb.impl.version>3.0.2</jaxb.impl.version>
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.14.0</version>
+                    <version>3.14.1</version>
                     <configuration>
                         <source>${project.build.source}</source>
                         <target>${project.build.target}</target>
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.11.2</version>
+                    <version>3.12.0</version>
                     <configuration>
                         <source>${project.build.source}</source>
                         <archive>
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.8.1</version>
+                    <version>3.9.0</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
@@ -330,13 +330,13 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.sonatype.central</groupId>
                     <artifactId>central-publishing-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>0.8.0</version>
+                    <version>0.9.0</version>
                     <extensions>true</extensions>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-scm-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>2.1.0</version>
+                    <version>2.2.1</version>
                     <configuration>
                         <sign>true</sign>
                     </configuration>
@@ -349,7 +349,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
                     <artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>0.8.13</version>
+                    <version>0.8.14</version>
                     <configuration>
                         <propertyName>jacocoArgLine</propertyName>
                         <excludes>
@@ -367,7 +367,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                     <artifactId>versions-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>2.18.0</version>
+                    <version>2.19.1</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
@@ -422,12 +422,12 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-surefire-report-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.5.3</version>
+                    <version>3.5.4</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.5.3</version>
+                    <version>3.5.4</version>
                     <configuration>
                         <includes>
                             <include>**/*IT.java</include>
diff --git a/exist-core/pom.xml b/exist-core/pom.xml
index c22524cb6b..ff33bb5e4a 100644
--- a/exist-core/pom.xml
+++ b/exist-core/pom.xml
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
             <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
-            <version>2.19.1</version>
+            <version>2.20.0</version>
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.bouncycastle</groupId>
             <artifactId>bcprov-jdk18on</artifactId>
-            <version>1.81</version>
+            <version>1.82</version>
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.fasterxml.uuid</groupId>
             <artifactId>java-uuid-generator</artifactId>
-            <version>5.1.0</version>
+            <version>5.1.1</version>
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.quartz-scheduler</groupId>
             <artifactId>quartz</artifactId>
-            <version>2.4.0</version>
+            <version>2.4.1</version>
             <!-- exclude Quartz SQL connectivity options -->
             <exclusions>
                 <exclusion>
@@ -615,7 +615,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>commons-fileupload</groupId>
             <artifactId>commons-fileupload</artifactId>
-            <version>1.5</version>
+            <version>1.6.0</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <!--
diff --git a/exist-core/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/functions/validation/Jaxp.java b/exist-core/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/functions/validation/Jaxp.java
index 3cc8551cad..933e840eca 100644
--- a/exist-core/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/functions/validation/Jaxp.java
+++ b/exist-core/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/functions/validation/Jaxp.java
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@
 import org.exist.xquery.value.Type;
 import org.exist.xquery.value.ValueSequence;
 
+import org.exist.xslt.TransformerFactoryAllocator;
 import org.xml.sax.ContentHandler;
 import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
 import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
@@ -460,7 +461,7 @@ private Path preparseDTD(StreamSource instance, String systemId)
 
         final StreamResult result = new StreamResult(tmp.toFile());
 
-        final TransformerFactory tf = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
+        final TransformerFactory tf = TransformerFactoryAllocator.getTransformerFactory(context.getBroker().getBrokerPool());
 
         final Transformer transformer = tf.newTransformer();
 
diff --git a/exist-distribution/pom.xml b/exist-distribution/pom.xml
index 5fd736e148..4e6b8fc96c 100644
--- a/exist-distribution/pom.xml
+++ b/exist-distribution/pom.xml
@@ -762,7 +762,7 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.1.0</version>
+                <version>3.2.0</version>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
                         <id>unzip-dashboard</id>
diff --git a/exist-parent/pom.xml b/exist-parent/pom.xml
index 7dbd74f943..8466e96b69 100644
--- a/exist-parent/pom.xml
+++ b/exist-parent/pom.xml
@@ -97,19 +97,19 @@
         <exquery.distribution.version>0.2.1</exquery.distribution.version>
         <icu.version>59.1</icu.version>
         <izpack.version>5.2.4</izpack.version>
-        <jline.version>3.30.4</jline.version>
+        <jline.version>3.30.6</jline.version>
         <lz4-java.version>1.8.0</lz4-java.version>
-        <jetty.version>9.4.57.v20241219</jetty.version>
-        <log4j.version>2.25.1</log4j.version>
+        <jetty.version>9.4.58.v20250814</jetty.version>
+        <log4j.version>2.25.2</log4j.version>
         <lucene.version>4.10.4</lucene.version>
         <milton.version>1.8.1.3</milton.version>
         <saxon.version>9.9.1-8</saxon.version>
         <xerces.version>2.12.2.2</xerces.version>
         <xmlresolver.version>6.0.19</xmlresolver.version>
-        <xmlunit.version>2.10.3</xmlunit.version>
+        <xmlunit.version>2.11.0</xmlunit.version>
         <junit.version>4.13.2</junit.version>
         <easymock.version>5.6.0</easymock.version>
-        <assertj.version>3.27.3</assertj.version>
+        <assertj.version>3.27.6</assertj.version>
         <awaitility.version>4.3.0</awaitility.version>
         <junit.toolbox.version>2.4</junit.toolbox.version>
         <hamcrest.version>2.2</hamcrest.version>
@@ -187,13 +187,13 @@
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>commons-codec</groupId>
                 <artifactId>commons-codec</artifactId>
-                <version>1.18.0</version>
+                <version>1.19.0</version>
             </dependency>
 
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
                 <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
-                <version>2.19.0</version>
+                <version>2.20.0</version>
             </dependency>
 
             <dependency>
@@ -396,7 +396,7 @@
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>it.unimi.dsi</groupId>
                 <artifactId>fastutil</artifactId>
-                <version>8.5.16</version>
+                <version>8.5.18</version>
             </dependency>
 
             <dependency>
@@ -524,7 +524,7 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                     <artifactId>xml-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>1.1.0</version>
+                    <version>1.2.0</version>
                     <configuration>
                         <transformerFactory>net.sf.saxon.TransformerFactoryImpl</transformerFactory>
                     </configuration>
@@ -563,12 +563,12 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.6.0</version>
+                    <version>3.6.1</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                     <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.5.1</version>
+                    <version>3.6.2</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>de.jutzig</groupId>
diff --git a/extensions/contentextraction/pom.xml b/extensions/contentextraction/pom.xml
index 08b95da19e..23c43096b5 100644
--- a/extensions/contentextraction/pom.xml
+++ b/extensions/contentextraction/pom.xml
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@
     </scm>
 
     <properties>
-        <tika.version>2.9.3</tika.version>
+        <tika.version>2.9.4</tika.version>
     </properties>
 
     <dependencies>
diff --git a/extensions/indexes/spatial/pom.xml b/extensions/indexes/spatial/pom.xml
index cb867315d8..f58e2b8303 100644
--- a/extensions/indexes/spatial/pom.xml
+++ b/extensions/indexes/spatial/pom.xml
@@ -71,8 +71,6 @@
 
     <properties>
         <geotools.version>2.4.5</geotools.version>
-<!--        <jdom1.version>1.1.3</jdom1.version>-->
-<!--        <jaxen.version>1.1.4</jaxen.version>-->
     </properties> 
     
     <dependencies>
@@ -112,46 +110,11 @@
                 </exclusion>
             </exclusions>
         </dependency>
-        <!-- dependency>
-            <groupId>org.jdom</groupId>
-            <artifactId>jdom</artifactId>
-            <version>${jdom1.version}</version>
-            <scope>runtime</scope>
-            <exclusions>
-                <exclusion>
-                    <groupId>jaxen</groupId>
-                    <artifactId>jaxen</artifactId>
-                </exclusion>
-            </exclusions>
-        </dependency>
-        <dependency>
-            <groupId>jaxen</groupId>
-            <artifactId>jaxen</artifactId>
-            <version>${jaxen.version}</version>
-            <scope>runtime</scope>
-        </dependency -->
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.geotools</groupId>
             <artifactId>gt2-referencing</artifactId>
             <version>${geotools.version}</version>
         </dependency>
-        <!--
-            <dependency>
-                <groupId>org.geotools</groupId>
-                <artifactId>gt2-epsg-extension</artifactId>
-                <version>${geotools.version}</version>
-            </dependency>
-            <dependency>
-                <groupId>org.geotools</groupId>
-                <artifactId>gt2-metadata</artifactId>
-                <version>${geotools.version}</version>
-            </dependency>
-            <dependency>
-                <groupId>org.geotools</groupId>
-                <artifactId>gt2-xml</artifactId>
-                <version>${geotools.version}</version>
-            </dependency>
-        -->
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.vividsolutions</groupId>
             <artifactId>jts</artifactId>
@@ -296,8 +259,6 @@
                                 <ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>java3d:vecmath:jar:1.3.1</ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>
                                 <ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>javax.media:jai_core:jar:1.1.3</ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>
                                 <ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>org.junit.vintage:junit-vintage-engine:jar</ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>
-<!--                                <ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>org.jdom:jdom:jar:${jdom1.version}</ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>-->
-<!--                                <ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>jaxen:jaxen:jar:${jaxen.version}</ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependency>-->
                             </ignoredUnusedDeclaredDependencies>
                         </configuration>
                     </execution>
diff --git a/extensions/modules/mail/pom.xml b/extensions/modules/mail/pom.xml
index 21a694049d..6ebd5523e0 100644
--- a/extensions/modules/mail/pom.xml
+++ b/extensions/modules/mail/pom.xml
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
 
     <properties>
         <jakarta.activation.version>2.0.1</jakarta.activation.version>
-        <jakarta.mail.version>2.0.1</jakarta.mail.version>
+        <jakarta.mail.version>2.0.2</jakarta.mail.version>
         <greenmail.version>2.0.1</greenmail.version>
     </properties>
 
diff --git a/extensions/modules/mail/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/modules/mail/SendEmailFunction.java b/extensions/modules/mail/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/modules/mail/SendEmailFunction.java
index 4fe2131f1e..f2337770ef 100644
--- a/extensions/modules/mail/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/modules/mail/SendEmailFunction.java
+++ b/extensions/modules/mail/src/main/java/org/exist/xquery/modules/mail/SendEmailFunction.java
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@
 import org.exist.util.MimeTable;
 import org.exist.xquery.*;
 import org.exist.xquery.value.*;
+import org.exist.xslt.TransformerFactoryAllocator;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.w3c.dom.Node;
 
@@ -65,8 +66,8 @@
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
-import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
 import javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMSource;
+import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXTransformerFactory;
 import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
 import java.io.*;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
@@ -90,7 +91,6 @@
 public class SendEmailFunction extends BasicFunction {
 
     private static final Logger LOGGER = LogManager.getLogger(SendEmailFunction.class);
-    private static final TransformerFactory TRANSFORMER_FACTORY = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
 
     private final static int MIME_BASE64_MAX_LINE_LENGTH = 76; //RFC 2045, page 24
 
@@ -700,7 +700,8 @@ private Mail[] parseMailElement(final Element[] mailElements) throws Transformer
                                         mail.setText(bodyPart.getFirstChild().getNodeValue());
                                     } else if ("xhtml".equals(bodyPart.getLocalName())) {
                                         //Convert everything inside <xhtml></xhtml> to text
-                                        final Transformer transformer = TRANSFORMER_FACTORY.newTransformer();
+                                        final SAXTransformerFactory factory = TransformerFactoryAllocator.getTransformerFactory(context.getBroker().getBrokerPool());
+                                        final Transformer transformer = factory.newTransformer();
                                         final DOMSource source = new DOMSource(bodyPart.getFirstChild());
                                         try (final StringBuilderWriter strWriter = new StringBuilderWriter()) {
                                             final StreamResult result = new StreamResult(strWriter);
@@ -839,7 +840,8 @@ private Message[] parseMessageElement(final Session session, final Element[] mai
                                             break;
                                         case "xhtml":
                                             //Convert everything inside <xhtml></xhtml> to text
-                                            final Transformer transformer = TRANSFORMER_FACTORY.newTransformer();
+                                            final SAXTransformerFactory factory = TransformerFactoryAllocator.getTransformerFactory(context.getBroker().getBrokerPool());
+                                            final Transformer transformer = factory.newTransformer();
                                             final DOMSource source = new DOMSource(bodyPart.getFirstChild());
                                             try (final StringBuilderWriter strWriter = new StringBuilderWriter()) {
                                                 final StreamResult result = new StreamResult(strWriter);
@@ -906,7 +908,8 @@ private Message[] parseMessageElement(final Session session, final Element[] mai
                                 Node attachChild = attachment.getFirstChild();
                                 while (attachChild != null) {
                                     if (Node.ELEMENT_NODE == attachChild.getNodeType()) {
-                                        final Transformer transformer = TRANSFORMER_FACTORY.newTransformer();
+                                        final SAXTransformerFactory factory = TransformerFactoryAllocator.getTransformerFactory(context.getBroker().getBrokerPool());
+                                        final Transformer transformer = factory.newTransformer();
                                         final DOMSource source = new DOMSource(attachChild);
                                         try (final StringBuilderWriter strWriter = new StringBuilderWriter()) {
                                             final StreamResult result = new StreamResult(strWriter);
diff --git a/extensions/modules/sql-oracle/pom.xml b/extensions/modules/sql-oracle/pom.xml
index 682feebaa5..1737047df9 100644
--- a/extensions/modules/sql-oracle/pom.xml
+++ b/extensions/modules/sql-oracle/pom.xml
@@ -133,9 +133,9 @@
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>
-            <groupId>com.oracle.jdbc</groupId>
+            <groupId>com.oracle.database.jdbc</groupId>
             <artifactId>ojdbc8</artifactId>
-            <version>23.8.0.25.04</version>
+            <version>23.26.0.0.0</version>
         </dependency>
 
         <dependency>