diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b62e00aa6..63b910579 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ Some data-binding types overridden as well (ObjectMapper sub-classed as XmlMappe
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.fasterxml.woodstox</groupId>
       <artifactId>woodstox-core</artifactId>
-      <version>6.0.3</version>
+      <version>6.1.1</version>
       <exclusions>
         <exclusion>
 	  <groupId>javax.xml.stream</groupId>
diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
index e1706cafe..c01c9257e 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ Project: jackson-dataformat-xml
 = Releases
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+2.10.3 (not yet released)
+
+- Upgrade Woodstox dependency to 6.1.1 (reduced dependencies for JDK9+)
+
 2.10.2 (05-Jan-2020)
 
 #366: XML containing xsi:nil is improperly parsed