diff --git a/Gemfile.jruby-2.5.lock.release b/Gemfile.jruby-2.5.lock.release
index c66488490e1..6a918b2ef5e 100644
--- a/Gemfile.jruby-2.5.lock.release
+++ b/Gemfile.jruby-2.5.lock.release
@@ -713,7 +713,7 @@ GEM
     rake (12.3.3)
     rchardet (1.8.0)
     redis (4.6.0)
-    rexml (3.2.6)
+    rexml (3.4.1)
     rspec (3.11.0)
       rspec-core (~> 3.11.0)
       rspec-expectations (~> 3.11.0)
@@ -901,7 +901,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   pleaserun (~> 0.0.28)
   rack-test
   rake (~> 12)
-  rexml (= 3.2.6)
+  rexml (= 3.4.1)
   rspec (~> 3.5)
   ruby-progressbar (~> 1)
   rubyzip (~> 1)
diff --git a/Gemfile.template b/Gemfile.template
index 0f7a780cf27..e8aeeda5d16 100644
--- a/Gemfile.template
+++ b/Gemfile.template
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ gem "stud", "~> 0.0.22", :group => :build
 gem "belzebuth", :group => :development
 gem "benchmark-ips", :group => :development
 gem "ci_reporter_rspec", "~> 1", :group => :development
-gem "rexml", "3.2.6", :group => :development
+gem "rexml", "3.4.1", :group => :development
 gem "flores", "~> 0.0.8", :group => :development
 gem "json-schema", "~> 2", :group => :development
 gem "logstash-devutils", "~> 1", :group => :development
diff --git a/lib/pluginmanager/proxy_support.rb b/lib/pluginmanager/proxy_support.rb
index 88110153409..10147949e08 100644
--- a/lib/pluginmanager/proxy_support.rb
+++ b/lib/pluginmanager/proxy_support.rb
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ def configure_proxy
   if !proxies.empty?
     FileUtils.mkdir_p(SETTINGS_TARGET)
     target = ::File.join(SETTINGS_TARGET, "settings.xml")
-    template = ::File.read(SETTINGS_TEMPLATE)
+    template = ::File.read(SETTINGS_TEMPLATE).gsub(/(^#.*$)/, '') # removes comment lines starting with #
     template_content = ERB.new(template, 3).result(ProxyTemplateData.new(proxies).get_binding)
 
     if ::File.exist?(target)