diff --git a/google-cloud-pubsublite/pom.xml b/google-cloud-pubsublite/pom.xml
index c69e16f72..f8be11e78 100644
--- a/google-cloud-pubsublite/pom.xml
+++ b/google-cloud-pubsublite/pom.xml
@@ -18,6 +18,14 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
       <artifactId>protobuf-java-util</artifactId>
+      <!--   Temp exclusion. Remove next protobuf upgrade (to 3.23.3 or higher)
+   context: https://github.com/googleapis/sdk-platform-java/pull/1791#issuecomment-1601587713-->
+      <exclusions>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>com.google.j2objc</groupId>
+          <artifactId>j2objc-annotations</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+      </exclusions>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>io.grpc</groupId>
@@ -38,6 +46,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
       <artifactId>google-cloud-pubsub</artifactId>
+      <version>1.123.17</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.api.grpc</groupId>