java.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.CXFServlet cannot be cast to javax.servlet.Servlet

I was getting this exception:

java.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.CXFServlet cannot be cast to javax.servlet.Servlet
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1116)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:993)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4350)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4659)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:785)

when trying to start up Tomcat using maven command -

mvn tomcat:run

on this application -

git://github.com/bijukunjummen/memberservice-codefirst.git

It turns out that the issue is related to a dependency that CXF pulls in which conflicts with Tomcats version of Servlet class. The fix is to change the maven dependency from:

  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
   <artifactId>apache-cxf</artifactId>
   <version>${cxf.version}</version>
   <type>pom</type>
  </dependency>

to the specific set of CXF libs:

  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
   <artifactId>cxf-rt-frontend-jaxws</artifactId>
   <version>${cxf.version}</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
   <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http</artifactId>
   <version>${cxf.version}</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
   <artifactId>cxf-rt-transports-http</artifactId>
   <version>${cxf.version}</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
   <artifactId>cxf-rt-ws-security</artifactId>
   <version>${cxf.version}</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
      <groupId>org.apache.ws.security</groupId>
      <artifactId>wss4j</artifactId>
      <version>1.6.0</version>
  </dependency> 

Now

mvn tomcat:run

should run through just fine.