diff --git a/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonActorRefDeserializer.java b/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonActorRefDeserializer.java
index 9d88d89d..99598955 100644
--- a/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonActorRefDeserializer.java
+++ b/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonActorRefDeserializer.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ public ActorRef deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws I
         if (curr == JsonToken.VALUE_STRING) {
             return actorRefFactory.create(jp.getText());
         }
-        throw ctxt.mappingException(_valueClass, curr);
+        ctxt.handleUnexpectedToken(_valueClass, jp);
+        return null; // never gets here
     }
 }
diff --git a/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonScheduledMessageRefDeserializer.java b/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonScheduledMessageRefDeserializer.java
index 56124908..a7906d7f 100644
--- a/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonScheduledMessageRefDeserializer.java
+++ b/main/base/src/main/java/org/elasticsoftware/elasticactors/base/serialization/JacksonScheduledMessageRefDeserializer.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ public ScheduledMessageRef deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctx
         if (curr == JsonToken.VALUE_STRING) {
             return scheduledMessageRefFactory.create(jp.getText());
         }
-        throw ctxt.mappingException(_valueClass, curr);
+        ctxt.handleUnexpectedToken(_valueClass, jp);
+        return null; // never gets here
     }
 }
diff --git a/main/pom.xml b/main/pom.xml
index 890c6900..524e633d 100644
--- a/main/pom.xml
+++ b/main/pom.xml
@@ -33,49 +33,52 @@
     <properties>
         <cassandra.version>3.11.14</cassandra.version>
         <hectorclient.version>2.0-0</hectorclient.version>
-        <spring.version>5.3.25</spring.version>
-        <aspectj.version>1.9.7</aspectj.version>
-        <protobuf.version>3.22.2</protobuf.version>
-        <grizzly.version>4.0.0</grizzly.version>
-        <log4j.version>2.20.0</log4j.version>
-        <guava.version>31.1-jre</guava.version>
-        <jackson.version>2.14.2</jackson.version>
-        <shoal.version>3.0.1</shoal.version>
-        <slf4j.version>2.0.6</slf4j.version>
+        <spring.version>5.3.35</spring.version>
+        <!-- latest version that can be built with java 11 -->
+        <aspectj.version>1.9.20.1</aspectj.version>
+        <protobuf.version>3.25.3</protobuf.version>
+        <grizzly.version>4.0.2</grizzly.version>
+        <log4j.version>2.23.1</log4j.version>
+        <guava.version>33.2.0-jre</guava.version>
+        <jackson.version>2.17.1</jackson.version>
+        <shoal.version>3.1.0</shoal.version>
+        <slf4j.version>2.0.13</slf4j.version>
         <reflections.version>0.10.2</reflections.version>
-        <javassist.version>3.29.2-GA</javassist.version>
+        <javassist.version>3.30.2-GA</javassist.version>
         <typetools.version>0.6.3</typetools.version>
-        <rabbitmq.version>5.16.0</rabbitmq.version>
+        <rabbitmq.version>5.21.0</rabbitmq.version>
         <lyra.version>0.5.5</lyra.version>
         <lz4.version>1.8.0</lz4.version>
-        <kafka.version>3.4.0</kafka.version>
-        <cassandra-driver.version>3.11.3</cassandra-driver.version>
-        <cassandra4-driver.version>4.15.0</cassandra4-driver.version>
+        <kafka.version>3.7.0</kafka.version>
+        <cassandra-driver.version>3.11.5</cassandra-driver.version>
+        <cassandra4-driver.version>4.17.0</cassandra4-driver.version>
         <servlet-api.version>3.1.0</servlet-api.version>
         <activemq-artemis.version>2.28.0</activemq-artemis.version>
-        <disruptor.version>3.4.4</disruptor.version>
-        <chronicle-bom.version>2.24ea45</chronicle-bom.version>
-        <!-- this is needed to fix issue with chronicle-bom -->
-        <jna.version>5.8.0</jna.version>
+        <disruptor.version>4.0.0</disruptor.version>
+        <chronicle-bom.version>2.25ea60</chronicle-bom.version>
+        <!-- this is needed to fix an issue with cassandra-driver-core 3.11.5 -->
+        <jnr.version>2.2.16</jnr.version>
         <!-- This is the last release with ASLv2-->
         <elasticsearch.version>7.10.2</elasticsearch.version>
         <kubernetes-client.version>4.13.3</kubernetes-client.version>
         <java-uuid-generator.version>4.1.0</java-uuid-generator.version>
         <!-- testing -->
-        <testng-version>7.7.1</testng-version>
-        <mockito.version>3.12.4</mockito.version>
+        <testng-version>7.10.2</testng-version>
+        <mockito.version>5.12.0</mockito.version>
         <!-- java 11+ -->
         <java.version>11</java.version>
         <javax-annotation-api.version>1.3.2</javax-annotation-api.version>
         <spring-data-redis.version>2.7.9</spring-data-redis.version>
-        <awaitility.version>4.2.0</awaitility.version>
+        <awaitility.version>4.2.1</awaitility.version>
         <reactive-streams.version>1.0.4</reactive-streams.version>
         <jsr305.version>3.0.2</jsr305.version>
         <persistence-api.version>2.2</persistence-api.version>
-        <plexus-utils.version>3.5.1</plexus-utils.version>
-        <netty.version>4.1.90.Final</netty.version>
-        <micrometer.version>1.10.5</micrometer.version>
+        <plexus-utils.version>4.0.1</plexus-utils.version>
+        <netty.version>4.1.109.Final</netty.version>
+        <micrometer.version>1.13.0</micrometer.version>
         <fast-uuid.version>0.2.0</fast-uuid.version>
+        <!-- needed to fix an issue with cassandra java-driver-core v4.17.0 and micrometer-core v1.13.0 -->
+        <hdrhistogram.version>2.2.1</hdrhistogram.version>
     </properties>
 
     <scm>
@@ -148,16 +151,17 @@
                 <scope>import</scope>
                 <type>pom</type>
             </dependency>
-            <!-- need to specify this here because of an issue in the chronicle bom (enforcer pluging chokes otherwise)-->
+            <!-- need to specify this because of an issue with cassandra-driver-core v3.11.5 library -->
             <dependency>
-                <groupId>net.java.dev.jna</groupId>
-                <artifactId>jna</artifactId>
-                <version>${jna.version}</version>
+                <groupId>com.github.jnr</groupId>
+                <artifactId>jnr-ffi</artifactId>
+                <version>${jnr.version}</version>
             </dependency>
+            <!-- need to specify this because of an issue between cassandra java-driver-core v4.17.0 and micrometer-core v1.13.0 -->
             <dependency>
-                <groupId>net.java.dev.jna</groupId>
-                <artifactId>jna-platform</artifactId>
-                <version>${jna.version}</version>
+                <groupId>org.hdrhistogram</groupId>
+                <artifactId>HdrHistogram</artifactId>
+                <version>${hdrhistogram.version}</version>
             </dependency>
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 055c893b..e8198fcc 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -83,40 +83,40 @@
             <plugins>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.8.1</version>
+                    <version>3.13.0</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.0.0-M5</version>
+                    <version>3.2.5</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.2.0</version>
+                    <version>3.4.1</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.2.1</version>
+                    <version>3.3.1</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-enforcer-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.0.0-M3</version>
+                    <version>3.4.1</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.2.0</version>
+                    <version>3.7.1</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.4.1</version>
+                    <version>3.5.3</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.simplify4u.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>sign-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>0.3.1</version>
+                    <version>1.1.0</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.5.0</version>
+                    <version>3.6.3</version>
                     <configuration>
                         <source>8</source>
                         <excludePackageNames>org.elasticsoftware.elasticactors.serialization.protobuf:org.elasticsoftware.elasticactors.cluster.protobuf</excludePackageNames>
@@ -125,12 +125,12 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                     <artifactId>buildnumber-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.0.0</version>
+                    <version>3.1.0</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                     <artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>1.14.0</version>
+                    <version>1.15.0</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.xolstice.maven.plugins</groupId>
@@ -140,22 +140,22 @@
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                     <artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.0.0</version>
+                    <version>3.6.0</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                     <artifactId>versions-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>2.15.0</version>
+                    <version>2.16.2</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>com.googlecode.maven-download-plugin</groupId>
                     <artifactId>download-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>1.5.0</version>
+                    <version>1.9.0</version>
                 </plugin>
                 <plugin>
                     <groupId>org.sonatype.plugins</groupId>
                     <artifactId>nexus-staging-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-                    <version>1.6.7</version>
+                    <version>1.6.13</version>
                 </plugin>
             </plugins>
         </pluginManagement>