diff --git a/components/camel-xmpp/pom.xml b/components/camel-xmpp/pom.xml
index 10a8eabf30ca5..88815edd1a7ec 100644
--- a/components/camel-xmpp/pom.xml
+++ b/components/camel-xmpp/pom.xml
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.igniterealtime.smack</groupId>
-            <artifactId>smack-java7</artifactId>
+            <artifactId>smack-java8</artifactId>
             <version>${smack-version}</version>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
diff --git a/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppBinding.java b/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppBinding.java
index b4862547c03f3..76d3a20a9d004 100644
--- a/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppBinding.java
+++ b/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppBinding.java
@@ -24,9 +24,9 @@
 import org.apache.camel.spi.HeaderFilterStrategy;
 import org.apache.camel.support.DefaultHeaderFilterStrategy;
 import org.apache.camel.util.ObjectHelper;
-import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.DefaultExtensionElement;
 import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.ExtensionElement;
 import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.Message;
+import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.StandardExtensionElement;
 import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.Stanza;
 import org.jivesoftware.smackx.jiveproperties.JivePropertiesManager;
 import org.jivesoftware.smackx.jiveproperties.packet.JivePropertiesExtension;
@@ -135,8 +135,8 @@ public Map<String, Object> extractHeadersFromXmpp(Stanza stanza, Exchange exchan
         if (jpe instanceof JivePropertiesExtension) {
             extractHeadersFrom((JivePropertiesExtension) jpe, exchange, answer);
         }
-        if (jpe instanceof DefaultExtensionElement) {
-            extractHeadersFrom((DefaultExtensionElement) jpe, exchange, answer);
+        if (jpe instanceof StandardExtensionElement) {
+            extractHeadersFrom((StandardExtensionElement) jpe, exchange, answer);
         }
 
         if (stanza instanceof Message) {
@@ -165,9 +165,10 @@ private void extractHeadersFrom(JivePropertiesExtension jpe, Exchange exchange,
         }
     }
 
-    private void extractHeadersFrom(DefaultExtensionElement jpe, Exchange exchange, Map<String, Object> answer) {
-        for (String name : jpe.getNames()) {
-            Object value = jpe.getValue(name);
+    private void extractHeadersFrom(StandardExtensionElement jpe, Exchange exchange, Map<String, Object> answer) {
+        for (StandardExtensionElement element : jpe.getElements()) {
+            String name = element.getElementName();
+            Object value = element.getText();
             if (!headerFilterStrategy.applyFilterToExternalHeaders(name, value, exchange)) {
                 answer.put(name, value);
             }
diff --git a/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppLogger.java b/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppLogger.java
index 48edffc949d0c..cfec90532b943 100644
--- a/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppLogger.java
+++ b/components/camel-xmpp/src/main/java/org/apache/camel/component/xmpp/XmppLogger.java
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ public XmppLogger(String direction) {
     @Override
     public void processStanza(Stanza stanza) {
         if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
-            LOG.debug("{} : {}", direction, stanza.toXML(null));
+            LOG.debug("{} : {}", direction, stanza.toXML());
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/docs/user-manual/modules/ROOT/pages/camel-4x-upgrade-guide-4_22.adoc b/docs/user-manual/modules/ROOT/pages/camel-4x-upgrade-guide-4_22.adoc
index e70c63e1c5506..4bccef49b3209 100644
--- a/docs/user-manual/modules/ROOT/pages/camel-4x-upgrade-guide-4_22.adoc
+++ b/docs/user-manual/modules/ROOT/pages/camel-4x-upgrade-guide-4_22.adoc
@@ -497,6 +497,16 @@ by the file-based consumers (see the `localWorkDirectory` note in the 4.21 upgra
 Ordinary object names are unaffected. A name that resolves outside `fileDir` is now rejected with an
 `IllegalArgumentException`.
 
+=== camel-xmpp - Smack upgraded to 4.4
+
+The camel-xmpp component has upgraded Smack from 4.3.5 to 4.4.8. The `smack-java7` module no longer exists in
+Smack 4.4 and has been replaced by `smack-java8` (relevant if you declared it explicitly alongside camel-xmpp).
+When extracting headers from a stanza whose JiveProperties extension is not parsed by a registered provider,
+the unparsed extension is now represented by Smack's `StandardExtensionElement` (the replacement for the removed
+`DefaultExtensionElement`); flat child elements are mapped to headers as before. See the
+https://github.com/igniterealtime/Smack/wiki/Smack-4.4-Readme[Smack 4.4 readme] for behavioral changes in the
+Smack library itself.
+
 === camel-weaviate - potential breaking change
 
 The Weaviate Java client has been upgraded from v5 (`io.weaviate:client`) to v6 (`io.weaviate:client6`).
diff --git a/parent/pom.xml b/parent/pom.xml
index 0512aa9d79662..8db8ed52b3e4a 100644
--- a/parent/pom.xml
+++ b/parent/pom.xml
@@ -467,7 +467,7 @@
         <slack-api-model-version>1.49.0</slack-api-model-version>
         <slf4j-api-version>2.0.18</slf4j-api-version>
         <slf4j-version>2.0.17</slf4j-version>
-        <smack-version>4.3.5</smack-version>
+        <smack-version>4.4.8</smack-version>
         <smallrye-config-version>3.18.1</smallrye-config-version>
         <smallrye-health-version>4.3.0</smallrye-health-version>
         <smallrye-fault-tolerance-version>6.11.2</smallrye-fault-tolerance-version>