diff --git a/molecular-biology-toolkit/pom.xml b/molecular-biology-toolkit/pom.xml
index 7af80999..3cc37e76 100644
--- a/molecular-biology-toolkit/pom.xml
+++ b/molecular-biology-toolkit/pom.xml
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>xerces</groupId>
             <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
-            <version>2.11.0</version>
+            <version>2.12.0</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.biojava</groupId>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b6c596f4..3418e78a 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>xerces</groupId>
             <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
-            <version>2.4.0</version>
+            <version>2.12.0</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>java3d</groupId>