diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 9df01ec9dd06e..a8b83d1cdd296 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ flexible messaging model and an intuitive client API.</description>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
     <redirectTestOutputToFile>true</redirectTestOutputToFile>
-    <test.additional.args></test.additional.args>
+    <test.additional.args/>
     <testReuseFork>true</testReuseFork>
     <testForkCount>4</testForkCount>
     <testRealAWS>false</testRealAWS>
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ flexible messaging model and an intuitive client API.</description>
     <!-- apache commons -->
     <commons-compress.version>1.19</commons-compress.version>
 
-    <bookkeeper.version>4.14.1</bookkeeper.version>
+    <bookkeeper.version>4.16.6</bookkeeper.version>
     <zookeeper.version>3.6.3</zookeeper.version>
     <snappy.version>1.1.7</snappy.version> <!-- ZooKeeper server -->
     <dropwizardmetrics.version>3.2.5</dropwizardmetrics.version> <!-- ZooKeeper server -->