diff --git a/molecular-biology-toolkit/pom.xml b/molecular-biology-toolkit/pom.xml
index 7af80999..7888f57a 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>2.12.2</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.biojava</groupId>