diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index fdcfbfc..d4c86aa 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.assertj</groupId>
             <artifactId>assertj-core</artifactId>
-            <version>3.27.6</version>
+            <version>3.27.7</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
     </dependencies>
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.14.1</version>
+                <version>3.15.0</version>
                 <configuration>
                     <source>${maven.compiler.source}</source>
                     <target>${maven.compiler.target}</target>
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-enforcer-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.6.2</version>
+                <version>3.6.3</version>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
                         <id>enforce-plugin-versions</id>
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-                <version>3.5.4</version>
+                <version>3.5.6</version>
             </plugin>
 
             <!-- JAR plugin -->
diff --git a/version-rules.xml b/version-rules.xml
index 0a74b92..3376ab6 100644
--- a/version-rules.xml
+++ b/version-rules.xml
@@ -4,5 +4,7 @@
         xsi:schemaLocation="https://www.mojohaus.org/VERSIONS/RULE/3.0.0 https://www.mojohaus.org/versions/versions-model/xsd/rule-3.0.0.xsd">
     <ignoreVersions>
         <ignoreVersion type="regex">(?i).*[-_.](alpha|beta|b|dev|rc|m|ea|snapshot)([-_.]?\d+)?</ignoreVersion>
+        <!-- JUnit 6+ requires Java 17; exclude major version 6 and later to stay on JUnit 5 until the project raises its Java baseline. -->
+        <ignoreVersion type="regex">^(?:[6-9]|[1-9]\d+)(?:\..*)?$</ignoreVersion>
     </ignoreVersions>
 </ruleset>
\ No newline at end of file