diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-and-test.yml b/.github/workflows/build-and-test.yml
index c471f7b..13ead9b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-and-test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-and-test.yml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        java: [8, 11, 17]
+        java: [8, 11, 17, 21]
     steps:
       # checkout
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
@@ -50,10 +50,9 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build with Gradle
         run: |
           ./gradlew clean build
-#          gradle --stop
       # Publish test results
       - name: Publish Unit Test Results
-        uses: EnricoMi/publish-unit-test-result-action@v1
+        uses: EnricoMi/publish-unit-test-result-action@v2
         if: always()
         with:
           files: build/test-results/**/*.xml
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 22dfa1a..3ee6b74 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 ![Java 8](https://img.shields.io/badge/Java%208-Tested-blueviolet)
 ![Java 11](https://img.shields.io/badge/Java%2011-Tested-blueviolet)
 ![Java 17](https://img.shields.io/badge/Java%2017-Tested-blueviolet)
+![Java 21](https://img.shields.io/badge/Java%2021-Tested-blueviolet)
 [![Known Vulnerabilities](https://snyk.io/test/github/firegloves/mempoi/badge.svg)](https://snyk.io/test/github/firegloves/mempoi)
 ![No ORM - Super Fast](https://img.shields.io/badge/No%20ORM-SuperFast-orange)
 
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index a2683ea..74a7192 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ plugins {
     id 'java-library'
     id 'signing'
     id 'maven-publish'
-    id "io.freefair.lombok" version "6.1.0"
+    id 'io.freefair.lombok' version "8.6"
     id 'jacoco'
     id 'io.github.gradle-nexus.publish-plugin' version "1.1.0"
 }
@@ -10,13 +10,18 @@ plugins {
 group 'it.firegloves'
 version '1.10.0'
 
-sourceCompatibility = 1.8
 
-def poiVersion = '5.2.2'
-def comonsLang3Version = '3.12.0'
-def comonsCollectionsVersion = '4.4'
+java {
+    withJavadocJar()
+    withSourcesJar()
+    sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
+}
+
+def poiVersion = '5.2.5'
+def comonsLang3Version = '3.14.0'
 def comonsMath3Version = '3.6.1'
-def slf4jVersion = '1.7.36'
+def comonsCollectionsVersion = '4.4'
+def slf4jVersion = '2.0.13'
 
 repositories {
     mavenCentral()
@@ -25,7 +30,11 @@ repositories {
 dependencies {
 
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.poi/poi-ooxml
-    implementation group: 'org.apache.poi', name: 'poi-ooxml', version: poiVersion
+    implementation (group: 'org.apache.poi', name: 'poi-ooxml', version: poiVersion) {
+        exclude group: 'org.apache.commons', module: 'commons-compress'
+    }
+    // TODO remove when poi-ooxml will update its dependency
+    implementation group: 'org.apache.commons', name: 'commons-compress', version: '1.26.2'
 
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.commons/commons-lang3
     implementation group: 'org.apache.commons', name: 'commons-lang3', version: comonsLang3Version
@@ -46,21 +55,16 @@ dependencies {
     testImplementation group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.13.2'
 
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.mariadb.jdbc/mariadb-java-client
-    testImplementation group: 'org.mariadb.jdbc', name: 'mariadb-java-client', version: '3.0.6'
+    testImplementation group: 'org.mariadb.jdbc', name: 'mariadb-java-client', version: '3.4.0'
 
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.mockito/mockito-core
-    testImplementation group: 'org.mockito', name: 'mockito-core', version: '4.6.1'
+    testImplementation group: 'org.mockito', name: 'mockito-core', version: '4.11.0'
 
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.hamcrest/hamcrest-all
     testImplementation group: 'org.hamcrest', name: 'hamcrest-all', version: '1.3'
 
     // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java
-    testImplementation group: 'mysql', name: 'mysql-connector-java', version: '8.0.32'
-}
-
-java {
-    withJavadocJar()
-    withSourcesJar()
+    testImplementation group: 'com.mysql', name: 'mysql-connector-j', version: '8.4.0'
 }
 
 publishing {
@@ -124,12 +128,17 @@ test {
     finalizedBy jacocoTestReport // report is always generated after tests run
 }
 
+jacoco {
+    toolVersion = "0.8.11"
+    reportsDirectory = layout.buildDirectory.dir("reports/jacoco")
+}
+
 jacocoTestReport {
+    dependsOn test // tests are required to run before generating the report
     reports {
-        xml.enabled true
-        xml.destination file("${buildDir}/reports/jacoco/test/jacocoTestReport.xml")
-        csv.enabled false
-        html.enabled false
+        xml.required.set(true)
+        csv.required.set(false)
+        html.required.set(false)
     }
 }
 
@@ -140,7 +149,6 @@ jacocoTestCoverageVerification {
                 includes = [ 'it.firegloves.mempoi.*' ]
                 minimum = 0.7
             }
-            failOnViolation true
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/docker_data/Dockerfile b/docker_data/Dockerfile
index cd9ea81..702d138 100644
--- a/docker_data/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker_data/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-FROM mysql:8.0.34-debian
+FROM mysql:8.0.37-debian
 
 ENV MYSQL_DATABASE=mempoi \
     MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=mempassword
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index 7454180..e644113 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index ffed3a2..a441313 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.2-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.8-bin.zip
+networkTimeout=10000
+validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index 1b6c787..b740cf1 100755
--- a/gradlew
+++ b/gradlew
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
 #       Darwin, MinGW, and NonStop.
 #
 #   (3) This script is generated from the Groovy template
-#       https://github.com/gradle/gradle/blob/master/subprojects/plugins/src/main/resources/org/gradle/api/internal/plugins/unixStartScript.txt
+#       https://github.com/gradle/gradle/blob/HEAD/platforms/jvm/plugins-application/src/main/resources/org/gradle/api/internal/plugins/unixStartScript.txt
 #       within the Gradle project.
 #
 #       You can find Gradle at https://github.com/gradle/gradle/.
@@ -80,13 +80,11 @@ do
     esac
 done
 
-APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" && pwd -P ) || exit
-
-APP_NAME="Gradle"
+# This is normally unused
+# shellcheck disable=SC2034
 APP_BASE_NAME=${0##*/}
-
-# Add default JVM options here. You can also use JAVA_OPTS and GRADLE_OPTS to pass JVM options to this script.
-DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS='"-Xmx64m" "-Xms64m"'
+# Discard cd standard output in case $CDPATH is set (https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/25036)
+APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" > /dev/null && pwd -P ) || exit
 
 # Use the maximum available, or set MAX_FD != -1 to use that value.
 MAX_FD=maximum
@@ -133,22 +131,29 @@ location of your Java installation."
     fi
 else
     JAVACMD=java
-    which java >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
+    if ! command -v java >/dev/null 2>&1
+    then
+        die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
 
 Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
 location of your Java installation."
+    fi
 fi
 
 # Increase the maximum file descriptors if we can.
 if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
     case $MAX_FD in #(
       max*)
+        # In POSIX sh, ulimit -H is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         MAX_FD=$( ulimit -H -n ) ||
             warn "Could not query maximum file descriptor limit"
     esac
     case $MAX_FD in  #(
       '' | soft) :;; #(
       *)
+        # In POSIX sh, ulimit -n is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         ulimit -n "$MAX_FD" ||
             warn "Could not set maximum file descriptor limit to $MAX_FD"
     esac
@@ -193,11 +198,15 @@ if "$cygwin" || "$msys" ; then
     done
 fi
 
-# Collect all arguments for the java command;
-#   * $DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, $JAVA_OPTS, and $GRADLE_OPTS can contain fragments of
-#     shell script including quotes and variable substitutions, so put them in
-#     double quotes to make sure that they get re-expanded; and
-#   * put everything else in single quotes, so that it's not re-expanded.
+
+# Add default JVM options here. You can also use JAVA_OPTS and GRADLE_OPTS to pass JVM options to this script.
+DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS='"-Xmx64m" "-Xms64m"'
+
+# Collect all arguments for the java command:
+#   * DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, and optsEnvironmentVar are not allowed to contain shell fragments,
+#     and any embedded shellness will be escaped.
+#   * For example: A user cannot expect ${Hostname} to be expanded, as it is an environment variable and will be
+#     treated as '${Hostname}' itself on the command line.
 
 set -- \
         "-Dorg.gradle.appname=$APP_BASE_NAME" \
@@ -205,6 +214,12 @@ set -- \
         org.gradle.wrapper.GradleWrapperMain \
         "$@"
 
+# Stop when "xargs" is not available.
+if ! command -v xargs >/dev/null 2>&1
+then
+    die "xargs is not available"
+fi
+
 # Use "xargs" to parse quoted args.
 #
 # With -n1 it outputs one arg per line, with the quotes and backslashes removed.