org.apache.maven.surefire.util.SurefireReflectionException using maven - unit-testing

Question

I am facing the following error while I am trying to test my application using junit.
org.apache.maven.surefire.util.SurefireReflectionException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException; nested exception is java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException: null
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.util.ReflectionUtils.invokeMethodWithArray(ReflectionUtils.java:189)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ProviderFactory$ProviderProxy.invoke(ProviderFactory.java:165)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ProviderFactory.invokeProvider(ProviderFactory.java:85)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.runSuitesInProcess(ForkedBooter.java:103)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.main(ForkedBooter.java:74)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/servlet/ServletException
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:791)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:423)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:356)
at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2442)
at java.lang.Class.getMethod0(Class.java:2685)
at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java:1620)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.util.ReflectionUtils.tryGetMethod(ReflectionUtils.java:57)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.common.junit3.JUnit3TestChecker.isSuiteOnly(JUnit3TestChecker.java:64)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.common.junit3.JUnit3TestChecker.isValidJUnit3Test(JUnit3TestChecker.java:59)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.common.junit3.JUnit3TestChecker.accept(JUnit3TestChecker.java:54)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.common.junit4.JUnit4TestChecker.accept(JUnit4TestChecker.java:51)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.util.DefaultDirectoryScanner.locateTestClasses(DefaultDirectoryScanner.java:84)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.scanClassPath(JUnit4Provider.java:186)
The pom.xml looks like this :
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.sample</groupId>
<artifactId>sample</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>sample</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<properties>
<org.springframework.version>3.1.0.RELEASE</org.springframework.version>
</properties>
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>Java.Net</id>
<url>http://download.java.net/maven/2/</url>
</repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax</groupId>
<artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
<version>6.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
<version>1.9.12</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax</groupId>
<artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
<version>6.0</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>4.8.2</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-jdk14</artifactId>
<version>1.6.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-nop</artifactId>
<version>1.6.0</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.mockito</groupId>
<artifactId>mockito-all</artifactId>
<version>1.8.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.14.1</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<!-- Maven War file generator plugin -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<webResources>
<resource>
<directory>${basedir}/src/main/java</directory>
<targetPath>WEB-INF/classes</targetPath>
<includes>
<include>**/*.properties</include>
<include>**/*.xml</include>
<include>**/*.css</include>
<include>**/*.html</include>
</includes>
</resource>
</webResources>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<!-- Maven compiler plugin -->
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.12</version>
<configuration>
<classpathDependencyExcludes>
<!-- exclude code absent api -->
<classpathDependencyExclude>javax.faces:javax.faces-api</classpathDependencyExclude>
</classpathDependencyExcludes>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
I have tried adding the javaee plugin as mentioned as a solution on stackoverflow also I have tried adding the surefire plugin but none worked. Can you please tell me what the problem could be as it is saying that the target is null.