diff --git a/log4j-parent/pom.xml b/log4j-parent/pom.xml
index 69b536f9986..cdda19d3c8a 100644
--- a/log4j-parent/pom.xml
+++ b/log4j-parent/pom.xml
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@
     <junit.version>4.13.2</junit.version>
     <junit-jupiter.version>5.11.3</junit-jupiter.version>
     <junit-pioneer.version>1.9.1</junit-pioneer.version>
-    <kafka.version>3.8.0</kafka.version>
+    <kafka.version>3.8.1</kafka.version>
     <lightcouch.version>0.2.0</lightcouch.version>
     <log4j.version>1.2.17</log4j.version>
     <log4j-transform.version>0.1.0</log4j-transform.version>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index d9f51f5087f..d59b084a764 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -349,7 +349,7 @@
     <site-jctools.version>4.0.5</site-jctools.version>
     <site-je.version>18.3.12</site-je.version>
     <site-jeromq.version>0.6.0</site-jeromq.version>
-    <site-kafka.version>3.8.0</site-kafka.version>
+    <site-kafka.version>3.8.1</site-kafka.version>
     <site-logback.version>1.5.5</site-logback.version>
     <site-slf4j.version>2.0.16</site-slf4j.version>
 
diff --git a/src/changelog/.2.x.x/update_org_apache_kafka_kafka_clients.xml b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/update_org_apache_kafka_kafka_clients.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0a84d44ceed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/update_org_apache_kafka_kafka_clients.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<entry xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+       xmlns="https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns"
+       xsi:schemaLocation="https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns/log4j-changelog-0.xsd"
+       type="updated">
+  <issue id="3142" link="https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/3142"/>
+  <description format="asciidoc">Update `org.apache.kafka:kafka-clients` to version `3.8.1`</description>
+</entry>