diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ecf04371b..99e3e56c0 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@
             <dependency>
                 <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
                 <artifactId>protobuf-java</artifactId>
-                <version>2.5.0</version>
+                <version>3.16.1</version>
             </dependency>
 
             <!-- this version is required by hadoop-core 2.6.0 -->