core/src/main/java/io/fabric8/maven/core/util/MavenUtil.java
public static String getVersion(String groupId, String artifactId) throws IOException {
        String path = "META-INF/maven/" + groupId + "/" + artifactId + "/pom.properties";
        InputStream in = MavenUtil.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(path);
        if (in == null) {
            throw new IOException("Could not find " + path + " on classath!");
        }
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        try {
            properties.load(in);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new IOException("Failed to load " + path + ". " + e, e);
        }
        String version = properties.getProperty("version");
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(version)) {
            throw new IOException("No version property in " + path);

        }
        return version;
    }
public static String getVersion(String groupId, String artifactId) throws IOException {
        String path = "META-INF/maven/" + groupId + "/" + artifactId + "/pom.properties";
        InputStream in = MavenUtil.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(path);
        if (in == null) {
            throw new IOException("Could not find " + path + " on classath!");
        }
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        try {
            properties.load(in);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new IOException("Failed to load " + path + ". " + e, e);
        }
        String version = properties.getProperty("version");
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(version)) {
            throw new IOException("No version property in " + path);

        }
        return version;
    }
Returns the version from the list of pre-configured versions of common groupId/artifact pairs