diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e3f3b2fe9a124..0678aede7a8e0 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@
     <!-- 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>3.4.1</kafka.version>
+    <kafka.version>3.7.2</kafka.version>
     <!-- After 10.15.1.3, the minimum required version is JDK9 -->
     <derby.version>10.14.2.0</derby.version>
     <parquet.version>1.13.1</parquet.version>
@@ -239,8 +239,8 @@
 
     <!-- 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/>
 
     <test.jdwp.address>localhost:0</test.jdwp.address>
     <test.jdwp.suspend>y</test.jdwp.suspend>
@@ -284,7 +284,7 @@
       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/>
     <spark.test.docker.keepContainer>false</spark.test.docker.keepContainer>
     <spark.test.docker.removePulledImage>true</spark.test.docker.removePulledImage>
 
@@ -3480,7 +3480,7 @@
             </goals>
             <configuration>
               <target>
-                <mkdir dir="${project.build.directory}/tmp" />
+                <mkdir dir="${project.build.directory}/tmp"/>
               </target>
             </configuration>
           </execution>
@@ -3809,7 +3809,7 @@
                         </goals>
                       </pluginExecutionFilter>
                       <action>
-                        <ignore></ignore>
+                        <ignore/>
                       </action>
                     </pluginExecution>
                     <pluginExecution>
@@ -3822,7 +3822,7 @@
                         </goals>
                       </pluginExecutionFilter>
                       <action>
-                        <ignore></ignore>
+                        <ignore/>
                       </action>
                     </pluginExecution>
                     <pluginExecution>
@@ -3835,7 +3835,7 @@
                         </goals>
                       </pluginExecutionFilter>
                       <action>
-                        <ignore></ignore>
+                        <ignore/>
                       </action>
                     </pluginExecution>
                   </pluginExecutions>