diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 25c6da7100056..d934af93c8a76 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@
     <!-- Version used for internal directory structure -->
     <hive.version.short>2.3</hive.version.short>
     <!-- note that this should be compatible with Kafka brokers version 0.10 and up -->
-    <kafka.version>2.6.0</kafka.version>
+    <kafka.version>3.7.2</kafka.version>
     <derby.version>10.12.1.1</derby.version>
     <parquet.version>1.10.1</parquet.version>
     <orc.version>1.5.12</orc.version>
@@ -211,8 +211,8 @@
 
     <!-- Some UI tests require Chrome and Chrome driver installed so those tests are disabled by default. -->
     <test.default.exclude.tags>org.apache.spark.tags.ChromeUITest</test.default.exclude.tags>
-    <test.exclude.tags></test.exclude.tags>
-    <test.include.tags></test.include.tags>
+    <test.exclude.tags/>
+    <test.include.tags/>
 
     <!-- Package to use when relocating shaded classes. -->
     <spark.shade.packageName>org.sparkproject</spark.shade.packageName>
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@
       things breaking.
     -->
     <spark.test.home>${session.executionRootDirectory}</spark.test.home>
-    <spark.test.webdriver.chrome.driver></spark.test.webdriver.chrome.driver>
+    <spark.test.webdriver.chrome.driver/>
 
     <CodeCacheSize>1g</CodeCacheSize>
     <!-- Needed for consistent times -->
@@ -2843,7 +2843,7 @@
                     </goals>
                   </pluginExecutionFilter>
                   <action>
-                    <ignore></ignore>
+                    <ignore/>
                   </action>
                 </pluginExecution>
                 <pluginExecution>
@@ -2856,7 +2856,7 @@
                     </goals>
                   </pluginExecutionFilter>
                   <action>
-                    <ignore></ignore>
+                    <ignore/>
                   </action>
                 </pluginExecution>
                 <pluginExecution>
@@ -2869,7 +2869,7 @@
                     </goals>
                   </pluginExecutionFilter>
                   <action>
-                    <ignore></ignore>
+                    <ignore/>
                   </action>
                 </pluginExecution>
               </pluginExecutions>
@@ -3052,7 +3052,7 @@
             </goals>
             <configuration>
               <target>
-                <mkdir dir="${project.build.directory}/tmp" />
+                <mkdir dir="${project.build.directory}/tmp"/>
               </target>
             </configuration>
           </execution>