diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 3ec525e..1efd439 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -145,11 +145,6 @@
       <artifactId>guava</artifactId>
       <version>32.0.0-jre</version>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>commons-lang</groupId>
-      <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId>
-      <version>2.6</version>
-    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>io.micrometer</groupId>
       <artifactId>micrometer-core</artifactId>
diff --git a/src/main/assemble/component.xml b/src/main/assemble/component.xml
index d16b7fb..e670c87 100644
--- a/src/main/assemble/component.xml
+++ b/src/main/assemble/component.xml
@@ -34,10 +34,8 @@
         version listing for packaged artifacts -->
         <include>${groupId}:${artifactId}</include>
         <include>com.google.guava:guava</include>
-        <include>commons-lang:commons-lang</include>
         <include>org.apache.thrift:libthrift</include>
         <include>org.slf4j:slf4j-api</include>
-        <include>org.slf4j:slf4j-log4j12</include>
       </includes>
     </dependencySet>
   </dependencySets>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/proxy/Proxy.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/proxy/Proxy.java
index 631320c..c00bff9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/proxy/Proxy.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/proxy/Proxy.java
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@
 import org.apache.accumulo.server.rpc.TimedProcessor;
 import org.apache.accumulo.server.rpc.UGIAssumingProcessor;
 import org.apache.accumulo.start.spi.KeywordExecutable;
-import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.UserGroupInformation;
 import org.apache.thrift.TProcessor;
 import org.apache.thrift.protocol.TCompactProtocol;
@@ -233,7 +232,8 @@ public static ServerAddress createProxyServer(HostAndPort address,
         }
         final KerberosToken kerberosToken = (KerberosToken) authToken;
         final String kerberosKeytab = kerberosToken.getKeytab().getAbsolutePath();
-        if (StringUtils.isBlank(kerberosPrincipal) || StringUtils.isBlank(kerberosKeytab)) {
+
+        if (kerberosPrincipal.isBlank() || kerberosKeytab.isBlank()) {
           throw new IllegalStateException(
               String.format("Kerberos principal '%s' and keytab '%s' must be provided",
                   kerberosPrincipal, kerberosKeytab));