diff --git a/pom-maven-central.xml b/pom-maven-central.xml
index e0380d1a..d0513d7f 100644
--- a/pom-maven-central.xml
+++ b/pom-maven-central.xml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
   <artifactId>kloadgen</artifactId>
 
-  <version>5.6.8</version>
+  <version>5.6.9</version>
 
   <name>KLoadGen</name>
   <description>Load Generation Jmeter plugin for Kafka Cluster. Supporting AVRO, JSON Schema and Protobuf schema types. Generate Artificial
@@ -485,6 +485,11 @@
       <artifactId>proto-google-common-protos</artifactId>
       <version>2.24.0</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
+      <artifactId>protobuf-java</artifactId>
+      <version>3.24.3</version>
+    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index deb1aaac..7b30c26e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
   <artifactId>kloadgen</artifactId>
 
-  <version>5.6.8</version>
+  <version>5.6.9</version>
 
   <name>KLoadGen</name>
   <description>Load Generation Jmeter plugin for Kafka Cluster. Supporting AVRO, JSON Schema and Protobuf schema types. Generate Artificial
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@
     <assertj-core.version>3.24.2</assertj-core.version>
     <assertj-json.version>1.2.0</assertj-json.version>
     <jsonassert.version>1.5.1</jsonassert.version>
-    <avro.version>1.11.2</avro.version>
+    <avro.version>1.11.3</avro.version>
     <commons-beanutils.version>1.9.4</commons-beanutils.version>
     <commons-collections4.version>4.4</commons-collections4.version>
     <commons-lang3.version>3.12.0</commons-lang3.version>
@@ -485,6 +485,11 @@
       <artifactId>proto-google-common-protos</artifactId>
       <version>2.24.0</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
+      <artifactId>protobuf-java</artifactId>
+      <version>3.24.3</version>
+    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>