META-INF/versions/9/module-info.class: broken class file? (This feature requires ASM6)

When using old versions (likely built with Java 8), there are no such processing errors:

// https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.bouncycastle
implementation "org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on:1.60"
implementation "org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-jdk15on:1.60"

// https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.google.code.gson/gson
implementation "com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.5"

The issue obviously was introduced with version 1.61 / 2.8.6 (likely built with Java 9).

---

It's annoying when Google brings one back to the own answer, which is not really an answer.

Instead of keeping back the version or editing the JAR, I've wrote a DeleteModuleInfoTask and a shell script, which automate the deletion of module-info.class from any given Java dependency.

Since commandLine only accepts a single command, one almost has to call a script.
And I believe this should serve as a good example for custom Exec task scripting.

File module_info.sh considers versions/9/module-info.class and module-info.class:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
GRADLE_CACHE_DIR=$HOME/.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1
ZIP_PATHS=(versions/9/module-info.class module-info.class)    
if [[ $# -ne 3 ]]; then
  echo "Illegal number of parameters"
  exit 1
else
  if [ -d "$GRADLE_CACHE_DIR" ]; then
    DIRNAME=${GRADLE_CACHE_DIR}/$1/$2/$3
    if [ -d "$DIRNAME" ]; then
      cd ${DIRNAME} || exit 1
      find . -name ${2}-${3}.jar | (
        read ITEM;
        for ZIP_PATH in "${ZIP_PATHS[@]}"; do
          INFO=$(zipinfo ${ITEM} ${ZIP_PATH} 2>&1)
          if [ "${INFO}" != "caution: filename not matched:  ${ZIP_PATH}" ]; then
            zip ${ITEM} -d ${ZIP_PATH} # > /dev/null 2>&1
          fi
        done
      )
      exit 0
    fi
  fi
fi

File module_info.bat depends on 7-Zip:

@echo off
for /R %USERPROFILE%\.gradle\caches\modules-2\files-2.1\%1\%2\%3\ %%G in (%2-%3.jar) do (
  if exist %%G (
      7z d  %%G versions\9\module-info.class > NUL:
      7z d  %%G module-info.class > NUL:
  )
) 

---

File tasks.gradle provides the DeleteModuleInfoTask, which calls either of the two CLI scripts:

import javax.inject.Inject

abstract class DeleteModuleInfoTask extends Exec {
    @Inject
    DeleteModuleInfoTask(String dependency) {
        def os = org.gradle.internal.os.OperatingSystem.current()
        def stdout = new ByteArrayOutputStream()
        def stderr = new ByteArrayOutputStream()
        ignoreExitValue true
        standardOutput stdout
        errorOutput stderr
        workingDir "${getProject().getGradle().getGradleUserHomeDir()}${File.separator}caches${File.separator}modules-2${File.separator}files-2.1${File.separator}${dependency.replace(":", File.separator).toString()}"
        String script = "${getProject().getRootDir().getAbsolutePath()}${File.separator}scripts${File.separator}"
        def prefix = ""; def suffix = "sh"
        if (os.isWindows()) {prefix = "cmd /c "; suffix = "bat"}
        String[] item = dependency.split(":")
        commandLine "${prefix}${script}module_info.${suffix} ${item[0]} ${item[1]} ${item[2]}".split(" ")
        doLast {
            if (execResult.getExitValue() == 0) {
                if (stdout.toString() != "") {
                    println "> Task :${project.name}:${name} ${stdout.toString()}"
                }
            } else {
                println "> Task :${project.name}:${name} ${stderr.toString()}"
            }
        }
    }
}

Example Usage (answering part A of the question):

tasks.register("lintFixModuleInfoBcPkix", DeleteModuleInfoTask, "org.bouncycastle:bcpkix-jdk15on:1.64")
lint.dependsOn lintFixModuleInfoBcPkix

tasks.register("lintFixModuleInfoBcProv", DeleteModuleInfoTask, "org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk15on:1.64")
lint.dependsOn lintFixModuleInfoBcProv

Or for GSON (answering part B of the question):

tasks.register("lintFixModuleInfoGson", DeleteModuleInfoTask, "com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.6")
lint.dependsOn lintFixModuleInfoGson

As already mentioned this was introduced in Java 9, that Android does not support. You could just use packagingOptions to remove those classes.

android {
    packagingOptions {
        exclude "**/module-info.class"
    }
}

This should not affect actual executed code and should also remove classes for lint checks as lint is working on bytecode.