diff --git a/core/pom.xml b/core/pom.xml
index 24cd01b5a78e6cf0c8c4dbbb69f12daa8d1cd5b5..170db65d251146b558ff5ad73e824a527f1c7e44 100644
--- a/core/pom.xml
+++ b/core/pom.xml
@@ -173,6 +173,16 @@ THE SOFTWARE.
       <groupId>org.jenkins-ci</groupId>
       <artifactId>htmlunit</artifactId>
       <version>2.6-jenkins-6</version>
+      <exclusions>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>xml-apis</groupId>
+          <artifactId>xml-apis</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>xalan</groupId>
+          <artifactId>xalan</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+      </exclusions>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>args4j</groupId>
diff --git a/test/pom.xml b/test/pom.xml
index 30d7ad7f93a1ec5cd6a654d91e41ca014a9560f3..ea3279d190345114bca0e266ad06f5df6bd20e8e 100644
--- a/test/pom.xml
+++ b/test/pom.xml
@@ -109,6 +109,11 @@ THE SOFTWARE.
         </exclusion>
       </exclusions>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency><!-- we exclude this transient dependency from htmlunit, which we actually need in the test -->
+      <groupId>xalan</groupId>
+      <artifactId>xalan</artifactId>
+      <version>2.7.1</version>
+    </dependency>
 
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.jvnet.hudson</groupId>