diff --git a/impl/maven-cli/pom.xml b/impl/maven-cli/pom.xml
index 40fbac2adad5..ecffd52480f5 100644
--- a/impl/maven-cli/pom.xml
+++ b/impl/maven-cli/pom.xml
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ under the License.
           </properties>
           <promoteUserPropertiesToSystemProperties>false</promoteUserPropertiesToSystemProperties>
           <systemPropertyVariables>
-            <maven.home>${maven.home}</maven.home>
+            <maven.home>${basedir}/src/test/resources/mavenHome</maven.home>
           </systemPropertyVariables>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
diff --git a/impl/maven-cli/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/cling/invoker/mvn/MavenInvokerTestSupport.java b/impl/maven-cli/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/cling/invoker/mvn/MavenInvokerTestSupport.java
index 9e77d09db57e..73bdc841efdd 100644
--- a/impl/maven-cli/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/cling/invoker/mvn/MavenInvokerTestSupport.java
+++ b/impl/maven-cli/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/cling/invoker/mvn/MavenInvokerTestSupport.java
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
 
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
-import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -31,7 +30,6 @@
 import org.apache.maven.api.cli.Parser;
 import org.apache.maven.api.cli.ParserRequest;
 import org.apache.maven.jline.JLineMessageBuilderFactory;
-import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assumptions;
 
 import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
 
@@ -88,13 +86,6 @@ protected void invoke(Path cwd, Path userHome, Collection<String> goals) throws
 
     protected Map<String, String> invoke(Path cwd, Path userHome, Collection<String> goals, Collection<String> args)
             throws Exception {
-        // works only in recent Maven4
-        Assumptions.assumeTrue(
-                Files.isRegularFile(Paths.get(System.getProperty("maven.home"))
-                        .resolve("conf")
-                        .resolve("maven.properties")),
-                "${maven.home}/conf/maven.properties must be a file");
-
         Files.createDirectories(cwd.resolve(".mvn"));
         Path pom = cwd.resolve("pom.xml").toAbsolutePath();
         Files.writeString(pom, POM_STRING);
diff --git a/impl/maven-cli/src/test/resources/mavenHome/conf/maven.properties b/impl/maven-cli/src/test/resources/mavenHome/conf/maven.properties
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1e53fa5df399
--- /dev/null
+++ b/impl/maven-cli/src/test/resources/mavenHome/conf/maven.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+#
+# 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.
+#
+
+#
+# Maven user properties
+#
+# The properties defined in this file will be made available through
+# user properties at the very beginning of Maven's boot process.
+#
+
+maven.installation.conf = ${maven.home}/conf
+maven.user.conf         = ${user.home}/.m2
+maven.project.conf      = ${session.rootDirectory}/.mvn
+
+# Comma-separated list of files to include.
+# Each item may be enclosed in quotes to gracefully include spaces. Items are trimmed before being loaded.
+# If the first character of an item is a question mark, the load will silently fail if the file does not exist.
+${includes} = ?"${maven.user.conf}/maven.properties", \
+              ?"${maven.project.conf}/maven.properties"
+
+#
+# Settings
+#
+# Define the default three levels for settings.
+# The '-is' flag will override the 'maven.installation.settings' property.
+# The '-ps' flag will override the 'maven.project.settings' property.
+# The '-s' flag will override the 'maven.user.settings' property.
+maven.installation.settings = ${maven.installation.conf}/settings.xml
+maven.project.settings      = ${maven.project.conf}/settings.xml
+maven.user.settings         = ${maven.user.conf}/settings.xml
+
+#
+# Toolchains
+#
+# Define the default three levels for toolchains.
+# The '-it' flag will override the 'maven.installation.toolchains' property.
+# The '-t' flag will override the 'maven.user.toolchains' property.
+maven.installation.toolchains = ${maven.installation.conf}/toolchains.xml
+maven.user.toolchains         = ${maven.user.conf}/toolchains.xml
+
+#
+# Extensions
+#
+maven.installation.extensions = ${maven.installation.conf}/extensions.xml
+maven.project.extensions      = ${maven.project.conf}/extensions.xml
+maven.user.extensions         = ${maven.user.conf}/extensions.xml
+
+#
+# Maven central repository URL.
+#
+maven.repo.central = ${env.MAVEN_REPO_CENTRAL:-https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2}