Unexpected exception parsing XML document from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml];

Question

In my pom.xml I am getting the following error. The reason why I have <version>2.0.3</version> is to use Spring 2 NTLM authentication.

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: 
Unexpected exception parsing XML document from
 ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]; nested exception
is java.lang.NoSuchMethodError:org.springframework.aop.config.AopNamespaceUtils.
 registerAutoProxyCreatorIfNecessary(Lorg/springframework/beans
/factory/xml/ParserContext;Lorg/w3c/dom/Element;)V

If I add the below.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
     <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
     <artifactId>spring-security-core-tiger</artifactId>
     <version>2.0.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
     <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
     <artifactId>spring-security-ntlm</artifactId>
     <version>2.0.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-taglibs</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.3</version>
</dependency>

My pom.xml without the above with no errors

<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>test</groupId>
    <artifactId>app</artifactId>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>app</name>
    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>prime-repo</id>
            <name>PrimeFaces Maven Repository</name>
            <url>http://repository.primefaces.org</url>
            <layout>default</layout>
        </repository>
    </repositories>
    <properties>
        <spring.version>3.1.1.RELEASE</spring.version>
        <spring.security.version>2.0.2. RELEASE</spring.security.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <!-- Spring 3 dependencies -->

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- JSF library -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
            <version>2.1.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Primefaces library -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.primefaces</groupId>
            <artifactId>primefaces</artifactId>
            <version>3.4.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.primefaces.themes</groupId>
            <artifactId>afterwork</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.8</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Hibernate library -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>4.1.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javassist</groupId>
            <artifactId>javassist</artifactId>
            <version>3.12.1.GA</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Oracle Java Connector library -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.oracle</groupId>
            <artifactId>ojdbc6</artifactId>
            <version>11.2.0.3</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>c3p0</groupId>
            <artifactId>c3p0</artifactId>
            <version>0.9.1.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Log4j library -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.16</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
            <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
            <version>6.4</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-jpamodelgen</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
            <version>4.1.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.0-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.1.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.myfaces.extensions.cdi.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>myfaces-extcdi-core-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.5</version>
            <scope>compile</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-ehcache</artifactId>
            <version>4.0.1.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>p6spy</groupId>
            <artifactId>p6spy</artifactId>
            <version>1.3</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <resources>
            <resource>
                <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
            </resource>
        </resources>

        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                    <compilerArgument>-proc:none</compilerArgument>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.bsc.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-processor-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.0.6</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>process</id>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>process</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <phase>generate-sources</phase>
                        <configuration>
                            <!-- source output directory -->
                            <outputDirectory>target/metamodel</outputDirectory>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Edit 1

As per PSR's suggestion, the error occurs when the following dependency is added

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.3</version>
</dependency> 

Answer 1

Check for multiple version for spring jars in your class path. we have spring-dao and spring-tx in class path. removing spring-dao fixed issue.

Answer 2

The problem will come because of one of the dependency.Try to remove all dependencies first what you shown.Then try to add one by one then we can find out the problem where it is