diff --git a/.github/workflows/maven.yml b/.github/workflows/maven.yml
index 97521cdd5f..ed003267de 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/maven.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/maven.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ on:
       - 'client-java-contrib/Dockerfile'
       - 'e2e/**/*.yaml'
       - '.github/workflows/maven.yml'
+      - '!spring/**'
+      - '!spring-aot/**'
   pull_request:
     branches: [ "master", "master-java8", "release-**" ]
     paths:
@@ -28,6 +30,8 @@ on:
       - 'client-java-contrib/Dockerfile'
       - 'e2e/**/*.yaml'
       - '.github/workflows/maven.yml'
+      - '!spring/**'
+      - '!spring-aot/**'
 
 jobs:
   verify-format:
@@ -64,9 +68,11 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build with Maven
         shell: bash
         run: |
+          # spring and spring-aot are tested in a dedicated workflow (spring.yml)
+          # examples/examples-release-latest depends on spring so must also be excluded
+          MODS_OVERRIDES='-pl !spring,!spring-aot,!examples/examples-release-latest'
           if [ $(grep -E '^(8|11)\.' <<< '${{ matrix.java }}') ]; then
             # some module doesn't compile on java platform lower than 17, need to skip them by specifying a profile
-            MODS_OVERRIDES='-pl !spring,!spring-aot'
             EXCLUDED_EXAMPLE_MODULES=`ls examples | grep examples | xargs -I {} echo '!examples/{}'   | tr '\n' ',' | sed 's/.$//'`
             MODS_OVERRIDES=$MODS_OVERRIDES,$EXCLUDED_EXAMPLE_MODULES
           fi
diff --git a/.github/workflows/spring.yml b/.github/workflows/spring.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d1f481e88a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/spring.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# This workflow runs Spring module tests across multiple JVM versions
+name: spring
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [ "master", "master-java8", "release-**" ]
+    paths:
+      - 'spring/**'
+      - 'spring-aot/**'
+      - '**/pom.xml'
+      - '.mvn/**'
+      - 'mvnw'
+      - 'mvnw.cmd'
+      - '.github/workflows/spring.yml'
+  pull_request:
+    branches: [ "master", "master-java8", "release-**" ]
+    paths:
+      - 'spring/**'
+      - 'spring-aot/**'
+      - '**/pom.xml'
+      - '.mvn/**'
+      - 'mvnw'
+      - 'mvnw.cmd'
+      - '.github/workflows/spring.yml'
+
+jobs:
+  spring-tests:
+    name: Spring Tests on Java ${{ matrix.java }}
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        java: [ 17, 21, 25, 26 ]
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v6
+      - name: Setup Java
+        uses: actions/setup-java@be666c2fcd27ec809703dec50e508c2fdc7f6654 # v5
+        with:
+          distribution: 'temurin'
+          java-version: ${{ matrix.java }}
+      - name: Cache local Maven repository
+        uses: actions/cache@27d5ce7f107fe9357f9df03efb73ab90386fccae # v5
+        with:
+          path: ~/.m2/repository
+          key: ${{ runner.os }}-maven-spring-${{ matrix.java }}-${{ hashFiles('pom.xml', '**/pom.xml') }}
+      - name: Build Spring modules with Maven
+        run: ./mvnw -q -B --define=org.slf4j.simpleLogger.log.org.apache.maven.cli.transfer.Slf4jMavenTransferListener=warn -pl spring,spring-aot -am clean test
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 901208a4ee..d57459d93c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -69,8 +69,8 @@
     <apache.commons.compress>1.28.0</apache.commons.compress>
     <apache.commons.io>2.22.0</apache.commons.io>
     <common.codec.version>1.22.0</common.codec.version>
-    <spring.boot.version>4.0.6</spring.boot.version>
-    <spring.version>6.2.12</spring.version>
+    <spring.boot.version>3.5.3</spring.boot.version>
+    <spring.version>6.2.8</spring.version>
     <prometheus.client.version>0.16.0</prometheus.client.version>
     <reflections.version>0.10.2</reflections.version>