diff --git a/build.gradle.kts b/build.gradle.kts
index 70a3ed933..3c3428789 100644
--- a/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/build.gradle.kts
@@ -50,10 +50,16 @@ application {
 
 java {
     toolchain {
-        languageVersion.set(JavaLanguageVersion.of(8))
+        languageVersion.set(JavaLanguageVersion.of(11))
     }
 }
 
+tasks.compileJava {
+    javaCompiler.set(javaToolchains.compilerFor {
+        languageVersion.set(JavaLanguageVersion.of(8))
+    })
+}
+
 tasks.jar {
     manifest.attributes(
         "Built-JDK" to System.getProperty("java.version"),
@@ -292,12 +298,6 @@ dependencies {
     systemTestImplementation("org.junit-pioneer:junit-pioneer:${property("junit-pioneer.version")}")
 }
 
-tasks.named<JavaCompile>("compileSystemTestJava") {
-    javaCompiler.set(javaToolchains.compilerFor {
-        languageVersion.set(JavaLanguageVersion.of(11))
-    })
-}
-
 val systemTest by tasks.registering(Test::class) {
     group = "verification"
     description = "Runs system tests."
@@ -305,9 +305,6 @@ val systemTest by tasks.registering(Test::class) {
     classpath = sourceSets["systemTest"].runtimeClasspath
     useJUnitPlatform()
     shouldRunAfter(tasks.test)
-    javaLauncher.set(javaToolchains.launcherFor {
-        languageVersion.set(JavaLanguageVersion.of(11))
-    })
     dependsOn(tasks.shadowJar)
     systemProperties["junit.jupiter.testinstance.lifecycle.default"] = "per_class"
     systemProperties["cliExec"] = javaLauncher.get().executablePath.asFile.absolutePath + " -jar " +
@@ -322,9 +319,6 @@ val systemTestNative by tasks.registering(Test::class) {
     classpath = sourceSets["systemTest"].runtimeClasspath
     useJUnitPlatform()
     shouldRunAfter(tasks.test)
-    javaLauncher.set(javaToolchains.launcherFor {
-        languageVersion.set(JavaLanguageVersion.of(11))
-    })
     dependsOn(tasks.nativeCompile)
     systemProperties["junit.jupiter.testinstance.lifecycle.default"] = "per_class"
     systemProperties["cliExec"] =
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index 1a2ee329a..92ebe57c5 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ plugin.defaults.version=0.2.0
 plugin.forbiddenapis.version=3.5.1
 plugin.git-publish.version=3.0.0
 plugin.github-release.version=2.4.1
-plugin.graal.version=0.9.19
+plugin.graal.version=0.9.27
 plugin.jib.version=3.3.2
 plugin.launch4j.version=3.0.4
 plugin.license.version=0.16.1
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index 033e24c4c..7f93135c4 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 9f4197d5f..3fa8f862f 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.2.1-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.4-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
 validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index fcb6fca14..1aa94a426 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
@@ -144,7 +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
@@ -152,7 +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
@@ -201,11 +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" \