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 1a71de22..7b30c26e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -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>