diff --git a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index 943f0cbfa7..d64cd49177 100644
Binary files a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index c30b486a89..a80b22ce5c 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.3-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.6-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
+validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew
index 65dcd68d65..1aa94a4269 100755
--- a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew
+++ b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew
@@ -83,10 +83,8 @@ done
 # This is normally unused
 # shellcheck disable=SC2034
 APP_BASE_NAME=${0##*/}
-APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" && pwd -P ) || exit
-
-# 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"'
+# 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
@@ -133,10 +131,13 @@ location of your Java installation."
     fi
 else
     JAVACMD=java
-    which java >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
+    if ! command -v java >/dev/null 2>&1
+    then
+        die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
 
 Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
 location of your Java installation."
+    fi
 fi
 
 # Increase the maximum file descriptors if we can.
@@ -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 $MAX_FD"
     esac
@@ -197,11 +198,15 @@ if "$cygwin" || "$msys" ; then
     done
 fi
 
-# 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.
+
+# 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, 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" \
diff --git a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew.bat b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew.bat
index 6689b85bee..7101f8e467 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew.bat
+++ b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/gradlew.bat
@@ -43,11 +43,11 @@ set JAVA_EXE=java.exe
 %JAVA_EXE% -version >NUL 2>&1
 if %ERRORLEVEL% equ 0 goto execute
 
-echo.
-echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
-echo.
-echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
-echo location of your Java installation.
+echo. 1>&2
+echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH. 1>&2
+echo. 1>&2
+echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the 1>&2
+echo location of your Java installation. 1>&2
 
 goto fail
 
@@ -57,11 +57,11 @@ set JAVA_EXE=%JAVA_HOME%/bin/java.exe
 
 if exist "%JAVA_EXE%" goto execute
 
-echo.
-echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: %JAVA_HOME%
-echo.
-echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
-echo location of your Java installation.
+echo. 1>&2
+echo ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: %JAVA_HOME% 1>&2
+echo. 1>&2
+echo Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the 1>&2
+echo location of your Java installation. 1>&2
 
 goto fail
 
diff --git a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/contract/verifier/plugin/SpringCloudContractVerifierGradlePlugin.java b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/contract/verifier/plugin/SpringCloudContractVerifierGradlePlugin.java
index 2863fc4ba2..fe3dfaa3aa 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/contract/verifier/plugin/SpringCloudContractVerifierGradlePlugin.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-contract-tools/spring-cloud-contract-gradle-plugin/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/contract/verifier/plugin/SpringCloudContractVerifierGradlePlugin.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2013-2020 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2013-2024 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -26,12 +26,12 @@ import org.gradle.api.Plugin;
 import org.gradle.api.Project;
 import org.gradle.api.artifacts.Configuration;
 import org.gradle.api.artifacts.ConfigurationContainer;
+import org.gradle.api.artifacts.Dependency;
 import org.gradle.api.attributes.Bundling;
 import org.gradle.api.attributes.Category;
 import org.gradle.api.attributes.LibraryElements;
 import org.gradle.api.attributes.Usage;
 import org.gradle.api.file.Directory;
-import org.gradle.api.file.FileCollection;
 import org.gradle.api.file.ProjectLayout;
 import org.gradle.api.logging.Logger;
 import org.gradle.api.logging.Logging;
@@ -143,6 +143,16 @@ public class SpringCloudContractVerifierGradlePlugin implements Plugin<Project>
 					} catch (NoSuchMethodException | InvocationTargetException | IllegalAccessException e) {
 						throw new RuntimeException("Unable to add project dependencies", e);
 					}
+				} else if (GradleVersion.current().compareTo(GradleVersion.version("8.6")) < 0) {
+					try {
+						Method projectMethod = dependencies.getClass().getMethod("project");
+						Method getImplementationMethod = dependencies.getClass().getMethod("getImplementation");
+						Object dependencyAdder = getImplementationMethod.invoke(dependencies);
+						Method addMethod = dependencyAdder.getClass().getMethod("add", Dependency.class);
+						addMethod.invoke(dependencyAdder, projectMethod.invoke(dependencies));
+					} catch (NoSuchMethodException | InvocationTargetException | IllegalAccessException e) {
+						throw new RuntimeException("Unable to add project dependencies", e);
+					}
 				} else {
 					dependencies.getImplementation().add(dependencies.project());
 				}