diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/MuzzlePlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/MuzzlePlugin.groovy
index e62679f21e..ce31a4bd6a 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/MuzzlePlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/MuzzlePlugin.groovy
@@ -263,9 +263,15 @@ class MuzzlePlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
   private static Task addMuzzleTask(MuzzleDirective muzzleDirective, Artifact versionArtifact, Project instrumentationProject, Task runAfter, Project bootstrapProject, Project toolingProject) {
     def taskName = "muzzle-Assert${muzzleDirective.assertPass ? "Pass" : "Fail"}-$versionArtifact.groupId-$versionArtifact.artifactId-$versionArtifact.version${muzzleDirective.name ? "-${muzzleDirective.getNameSlug()}" : ""}"
     def config = instrumentationProject.configurations.create(taskName)
-    config.dependencies.add(instrumentationProject.dependencies.create("$versionArtifact.groupId:$versionArtifact.artifactId:$versionArtifact.version") {
+    def dep =  instrumentationProject.dependencies.create("$versionArtifact.groupId:$versionArtifact.artifactId:$versionArtifact.version") {
       transitive = true
-    })
+    }
+    // The following optional transitive dependencies are brought in by some legacy module such as log4j 1.x but are no
+    // longer bundled with the JVM and have to be excluded for the muzzle tests to be able to run.
+    dep.exclude group: 'com.sun.jdmk', module: 'jmxtools'
+    dep.exclude group: 'com.sun.jmx', module: 'jmxri'
+
+    config.dependencies.add(dep)
     for (String additionalDependency : muzzleDirective.additionalDependencies) {
       config.dependencies.add(instrumentationProject.dependencies.create(additionalDependency) {
         transitive = true
diff --git a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/log4j1/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/log4j1/Log4j1MDCInstrumentation.java b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/log4j1/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/log4j1/Log4j1MDCInstrumentation.java
index 30800f335b..6aa4d60acb 100644
--- a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/log4j1/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/log4j1/Log4j1MDCInstrumentation.java
+++ b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/log4j1/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/log4j1/Log4j1MDCInstrumentation.java
@@ -9,10 +9,8 @@ import datadog.trace.agent.tooling.Instrumenter;
 import datadog.trace.agent.tooling.log.LogContextScopeListener;
 import datadog.trace.api.Config;
 import datadog.trace.api.GlobalTracer;
-
 import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import java.util.Map;
-
 import net.bytebuddy.asm.Advice;
 import net.bytebuddy.description.method.MethodDescription;
 import net.bytebuddy.description.type.TypeDescription;
@@ -43,7 +41,7 @@ public class Log4j1MDCInstrumentation extends Instrumenter.Default {
 
   @Override
   public String[] helperClassNames() {
-    return new String[]{LogContextScopeListener.class.getName()};
+    return new String[] {LogContextScopeListener.class.getName()};
   }
 
   public static class MDCContextAdvice {
@@ -60,7 +58,7 @@ public class Log4j1MDCInstrumentation extends Instrumenter.Default {
         GlobalTracer.get().addScopeListener(new LogContextScopeListener(putMethod, removeMethod));
       } catch (final NoSuchMethodException e) {
         org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger(instance.getClass())
-          .debug("Failed to add log4j ThreadContext span listener", e);
+            .debug("Failed to add log4j ThreadContext span listener", e);
       }
     }
   }