diff --git a/.github/workflows/verify.yaml b/.github/workflows/verify.yaml
index 819de9ad..8e691f9f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/verify.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/verify.yaml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ on:
   workflow_call:
   workflow_dispatch:
   push:
+    branches: [ main, release/*, bugfix/* ]
   pull_request:
     branches: [ main, release/*, bugfix/* ]
     paths-ignore:
diff --git a/DEPENDENCIES b/DEPENDENCIES
index b80be547..afb49cd5 100644
--- a/DEPENDENCIES
+++ b/DEPENDENCIES
@@ -45,11 +45,11 @@ maven/mavencentral/jakarta.json/jakarta.json-api/2.1.3, EPL-2.0 OR GPL-2.0-only
 maven/mavencentral/jakarta.ws.rs/jakarta.ws.rs-api/4.0.0, EPL-2.0 OR GPL-2.0-only with Classpath-exception-2.0, approved, ee4j.rest
 maven/mavencentral/junit/junit/4.13.2, EPL-2.0, approved, CQ23636
 maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy-agent/1.14.1, Apache-2.0, approved, #7164
-maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy-agent/1.14.15, Apache-2.0, approved, #7164
+maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy-agent/1.15.0, Apache-2.0, approved, #16009
 maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy/1.14.1, Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause, approved, #7163
-maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy/1.14.15, Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause, approved, #7163
 maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy/1.14.16, Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause, approved, #7163
 maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy/1.14.18, Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause, approved, #7163
+maven/mavencentral/net.bytebuddy/byte-buddy/1.15.0, Apache-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause, approved, #16008
 maven/mavencentral/net.java.dev.jna/jna/5.13.0, Apache-2.0 AND LGPL-2.1-or-later, approved, #15196
 maven/mavencentral/net.sf.saxon/Saxon-HE/12.5, NOASSERTION, restricted, clearlydefined
 maven/mavencentral/org.antlr/antlr4-runtime/4.13.2, BSD-3-Clause, approved, #10767
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ maven/mavencentral/org.junit.jupiter/junit-jupiter-params/5.11.0, EPL-2.0, appro
 maven/mavencentral/org.junit.platform/junit-platform-commons/1.11.0, EPL-2.0, approved, #15936
 maven/mavencentral/org.junit.platform/junit-platform-engine/1.11.0, EPL-2.0, approved, #15932
 maven/mavencentral/org.junit/junit-bom/5.11.0, , restricted, clearlydefined
-maven/mavencentral/org.mockito/mockito-core/5.12.0, MIT AND (Apache-2.0 AND MIT) AND Apache-2.0, approved, #14678
+maven/mavencentral/org.mockito/mockito-core/5.13.0, MIT, approved, clearlydefined
 maven/mavencentral/org.mockito/mockito-core/5.2.0, MIT AND (Apache-2.0 AND MIT) AND Apache-2.0, approved, #7401
 maven/mavencentral/org.objenesis/objenesis/3.3, Apache-2.0, approved, clearlydefined
 maven/mavencentral/org.opentest4j/opentest4j/1.3.0, Apache-2.0, approved, #9713
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index c1962a79..d64cd491 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 3499ded5..9355b415 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.5-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.10-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
+validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index aeb74cbb..1aa94a42 100755
--- a/gradlew
+++ b/gradlew
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ done
 # This is normally unused
 # shellcheck disable=SC2034
 APP_BASE_NAME=${0##*/}
-APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" && pwd -P ) || exit
+# 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
@@ -130,10 +131,13 @@ 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.
@@ -141,7 +145,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
     case $MAX_FD in #(
       max*)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -H is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         MAX_FD=$( ulimit -H -n ) ||
             warn "Could not query maximum file descriptor limit"
     esac
@@ -149,7 +153,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
       '' | soft) :;; #(
       *)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -n is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         ulimit -n "$MAX_FD" ||
             warn "Could not set maximum file descriptor limit to $MAX_FD"
     esac
@@ -198,11 +202,11 @@ fi
 # 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, 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.
+# 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" \