--- src/components/org/apache/jmeter/assertions/XMLAssertion.java	(revision 1719809)
+++ src/components/org/apache/jmeter/assertions/XMLAssertion.java	(working copy)
@@ -22,13 +22,18 @@ 
 import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 
+import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
+import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
+import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
+
 import org.apache.jmeter.samplers.SampleResult;
 import org.apache.jmeter.testelement.AbstractTestElement;
 import org.apache.jmeter.testelement.ThreadListener;
 import org.apache.jorphan.logging.LoggingManager;
 import org.apache.log.Logger;
-import org.jdom.JDOMException;
-import org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder;
+import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
+import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
 
 /**
  * Checks if the result is a well-formed XML content using jdom
@@ -37,13 +42,17 @@ 
 public class XMLAssertion extends AbstractTestElement implements Serializable, Assertion, ThreadListener {
     private static final Logger log = LoggingManager.getLoggerForClass();
 
-    private static final long serialVersionUID = 240L;
+    private static final long serialVersionUID = 241L;
 
     // one builder for all requests in a thread
-    private static final ThreadLocal<SAXBuilder> myBuilder = new ThreadLocal<SAXBuilder>() {
+    private static final ThreadLocal<SAXParser> myBuilder = new ThreadLocal<SAXParser>() {
         @Override
-        protected SAXBuilder initialValue() {
-            return new SAXBuilder();
+        protected SAXParser initialValue() {
+            try {
+                return SAXParserFactory.newInstance().newSAXParser();
+            } catch (ParserConfigurationException | SAXException e) {
+                return null;
+            }
         }
     };
 
@@ -62,18 +71,18 @@ 
             return result.setResultForNull();
         }
         result.setFailure(false);
-        SAXBuilder builder = myBuilder.get();
-
-        try {
-            builder.build(new StringReader(resultData));
-        } catch (JDOMException e) {
-            log.debug("Cannot parse result content", e); // may well happen
-            result.setFailure(true);
-            result.setFailureMessage(e.getMessage());
-        } catch (IOException e) {
-            log.error("Cannot read result content", e); // should never happen
+        SAXParser builder = myBuilder.get();
+        if(myBuilder!=null) {
+            try {
+                builder.parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(resultData)), new DefaultHandler());
+            } catch (SAXException | IOException e) {
+                log.error("Cannot read result content", e); // should never happen
+                result.setError(true);
+                result.setFailureMessage(e.getMessage());
+            }
+        } else {
             result.setError(true);
-            result.setFailureMessage(e.getMessage());
+            result.setFailureMessage("Cannot initialize SAXParser, check jmeter.log file");
         }
 
         return result;