Yes, i did try this out. From what i looked at, the deployment framework starts using the version of xerces jar present in your deployment because it sets the classloader to your deployment's classloader. I think this is the correct thing to do, because each deployment is expected to be started within its own classloader to ensure that it gets access to the right resources. Now the real issue with xerces is that its an endorsed library. i.e. it's part of the Java endorsed library directory. So the only way to override the xerces version appears to be to change the version in the JBoss endorsed directory (but that can lead to other issues). This is where i had left off in my investigation of this issue a while back. View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4249300#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...