persistence.xml: Document root element "persistence", must match DOCTYPE root "null" - spring

Question

This is my persistence.xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<persistence version="2.0"
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_2_0.xsd">
<persistence-unit name="auditDB">
<provider>org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence</provider>
<class>com.sl.audit.demo.entity.AuditDetails</class>
<class>com.sl.audit.demo.entity.Audit</class>
<class>com.sl.audit.demo.entity.AuditConfig</class>
<class>com.sl.audit.demo.entity.Author</class>
<class>com.sl.audit.demo.entity.Product</class>
<properties>
<property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/>
<property name="hibernate.connection.url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test_db"/>
<property name="hibernate.connection.username" value="root" />
<property name="hibernate.connection.password" value="******"/>
<property name="hibernate.show_sql" value="true" />
<property name="hibernate.format_sql" value="true" />
<property name="hibernate.dialect" value="org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect"/>
<property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="create"/>
</properties>
</persistence-unit>
</persistence>
I am deploying my war file on JBoss. On deployment, I am getting below exception:
[2022-10-28 10:57:06,615] Artifact COMSStub:war: java.lang.Exception: {"WFLYCTL0080: Failed services" => {"jboss.deployment.unit.\"COMSStub.war\".undertow-deployment" => "java.lang.RuntimeException: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to parse configuration class [com.techm.jms.COMSStubApplication]; nested exception is java.util.InvalidPropertiesFormatException: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 4; columnNumber: 133; Document root element \"persistence\", must match DOCTYPE root \"null\".
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to parse configuration class [com.techm.jms.COMSStubApplication]; nested exception is java.util.InvalidPropertiesFormatException: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 4; columnNumber: 133; Document root element \"persistence\", must match DOCTYPE root \"null\".
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to parse configuration class [com.techm.jms.COMSStubApplication]; nested exception is java.util.InvalidPropertiesFormatException: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 4; columnNumber: 133; Document root element \"persistence\", must match DOCTYPE root \"null\".
Caused by: java.util.InvalidPropertiesFormatException: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 4; columnNumber: 133; Document root element \"persistence\", must match DOCTYPE root \"null\".
Caused by: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 4; columnNumber: 133; Document root element \"persistence\", must match DOCTYPE root \"null\"."}}
This is my pom file (relevant excerpt):
<spring-data-jpa.version>2.7.5</spring-data-jpa.version>
<hibernate.version>3.6.6.Final</hibernate.version>
<hibernate-jpa-2.0-api.version>1.0.0.Final</hibernate-jpa-2.0-api.version>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.data</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-data-jpa</artifactId>
<version>${spring-data-jpa.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
<version>${hibernate.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.0-api</artifactId>
<version>${hibernate-jpa-2.0-api.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
Spring Boot Version Used: 2.6.2
Multiple solutions have been tried. Updated hibernate to 5.2.2. and updated persistence.xml accordingly. Tried with multiple persistence.xml - xsi:schema versions but to no avail. Multiple relevant questions exist but none of them are answered. Any help will be highly appreciated.
Following is what my war file contains:
WEB-INF/lib/antlr-2.7.7.jar
WEB-INF/lib/artemis-commons-2.19.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/artemis-core-client-2.19.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/artemis-jms-client-2.19.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/artemis-selector-2.19.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/commons-beanutils-1.9.4.jar
WEB-INF/lib/commons-collections-3.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/dom4j-1.6.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-commons-annotations-3.2.0.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-core-3.6.6.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-jpa-2.0-api-1.0.0.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jackson-annotations-2.13.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jackson-core-2.13.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jackson-databind-2.13.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jackson-datatype-jdk8-2.13.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jackson-datatype-jsr310-2.13.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jackson-module-parameter-names-2.13.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jakarta.annotation-api-1.3.5.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jakarta.jms-api-2.0.3.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jakarta.json-api-1.1.6.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jboss-logging-3.4.2.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jgroups-3.6.13.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/johnzon-core-1.2.15.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jta-1.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/jul-to-slf4j-1.7.32.jar
WEB-INF/lib/log4j-api-2.17.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/log4j-to-slf4j-2.17.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/logback-classic-1.2.9.jar
WEB-INF/lib/logback-core-1.2.9.jar
WEB-INF/lib/mysql-connector-java-8.0.27.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-buffer-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-codec-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-codec-http-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-codec-socks-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-common-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-handler-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-handler-proxy-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-resolver-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-tcnative-classes-2.0.46.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-transport-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-transport-classes-epoll-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-transport-classes-kqueue-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-transport-native-epoll-4.1.72.Final-linux-x86_64.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-transport-native-kqueue-4.1.72.Final-osx-x86_64.jar
WEB-INF/lib/netty-transport-native-unix-common-4.1.72.Final.jar
WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-api-1.7.32.jar
WEB-INF/lib/snakeyaml-1.29.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-aop-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-beans-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-boot-2.6.2.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-boot-autoconfigure-2.6.2.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-core-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-data-commons-2.6.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-data-jpa-2.7.5.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-expression-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-hibernate-envers-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-jcl-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-jdbc-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-orm-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-tx-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-web-5.3.14.jar
WEB-INF/lib/spring-webmvc-5.3.14.jar