diff --git a/geowebcache/distributed/pom.xml b/geowebcache/distributed/pom.xml
index b64169a71..def0a1921 100644
--- a/geowebcache/distributed/pom.xml
+++ b/geowebcache/distributed/pom.xml
@@ -29,6 +29,11 @@
       <artifactId>gwc-core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.geotools</groupId>
+      <artifactId>gt-xml</artifactId>
+      <version>${gt.version}</version>
+    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
diff --git a/geowebcache/distributed/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/storage/blobstore/memory/distributed/HazelcastLoader.java b/geowebcache/distributed/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/storage/blobstore/memory/distributed/HazelcastLoader.java
index f20246cff..36f6e855a 100644
--- a/geowebcache/distributed/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/storage/blobstore/memory/distributed/HazelcastLoader.java
+++ b/geowebcache/distributed/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/storage/blobstore/memory/distributed/HazelcastLoader.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
 import org.apache.commons.io.filefilter.NameFileFilter;
 import org.geotools.util.logging.Logging;
+import org.geotools.xml.XMLUtils;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.InitializingBean;
 
 /**
@@ -54,6 +55,18 @@ public class HazelcastLoader implements InitializingBean {
     /** Hazelcast instance to pass to the {@link HazelcastCacheProvider} class */
     private HazelcastInstance instance;
 
+    // Disable Hazelcast's XXE protection if the XML libraries don't support JAXP 1.5
+    static {
+        if (System.getProperty("hazelcast.ignoreXxeProtectionFailures") == null) {
+            try {
+                XMLUtils.checkSupportForJAXP15Properties();
+            } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
+                LOGGER.warning("Disabling Hazelcast XXE protection because " + e.getMessage());
+                System.setProperty("hazelcast.ignoreXxeProtectionFailures", "true");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     @Override
     public void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception {
         if (instance == null) {
diff --git a/geowebcache/pom.xml b/geowebcache/pom.xml
index 9952b1f85..3623984b0 100644
--- a/geowebcache/pom.xml
+++ b/geowebcache/pom.xml
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
     <test.maxHeapSize>64M</test.maxHeapSize>
     <maven.test.jvmargs></maven.test.jvmargs>
     <imageio-ext.version>1.4.7</imageio-ext.version>
-    <hazelcast.version>5.3.1</hazelcast.version>
+    <hazelcast.version>5.3.6</hazelcast.version>
     <joda-time.version>2.8.1</joda-time.version>
     <spotless.action>apply</spotless.action>
     <spotless.apply.skip>false</spotless.apply.skip>