Could Not Initialize Class Org.apache.maven.plugin.war.util.webappstructureserializer Jun 2026

If updating the plugin is not an option, you must align your build environment with the expectations of the legacy plugin.

If you are stuck with a legacy codebase where updating the plugin is strictly forbidden by architectural constraints (a rare but possible scenario), there is a configuration workaround that often bypasses the serialization logic entirely. If updating the plugin is not an option,

The most effective fix is to manually specify a newer version of the maven-war-plugin in your project's pom.xml . Version or higher is known to resolve this issue. Version or higher is known to resolve this issue

A Jenkins job started failing after a node upgrade. The agent had a corrupted local Maven repository that was shared across jobs. Deleting the maven-war-plugin folder from the Jenkins user’s .m2 repository fixed the issue. Adding a “clean local repo” step before the build prevented recurrence. If updating the plugin is not an option,