- A cluster-scoped object with an ownerReference referencing a uid of a namespaced kind is now consistently treated as though that owner is not resolvable, and the child object is ignored by the garbage collector. ([#92743](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/92743), [@liggitt](h...

* The OwnerReferencesPermissionEnforcement admission plugin now requires `update` permission on the `finalizers` subresource of the referenced owner in order to set `blockOwnerDeletion` on an owner reference. ([#49133](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/49133), [@deads2k](https://github.com/deads2k))

* The OwnerReferencesPermissionEnforcement admission plugin now requires `update` permission on the `finalizers` subresource of the referenced owner in order to set `blockOwnerDeletion` on an owner reference. ([#49133](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/49133), [@deads2k](https://github.com/deads2k))

- Component owner can configure the allowlist of metric label with flag '--allow-metric-labels'. ([#99385](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/99385), [@YoyinZyc](https://github.com/YoyinZyc)) [SIG API Machinery, CLI, Cloud Provider, Cluster Lifecycle, Instrumentation and Release]

## Release Notes From SIGs

### SIG API Machinery

- The OwnerReferencesPermissionEnforcement admission plugin now checks authorization for the correct scope (namespaced or cluster-scoped) of the owner resource type. Previously, it always checked permissions at the same scope as the child resource. ([#70389](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70389), [@caesarxuchao](https://github.com/caesarxuchao))

which could block indefinitely due to a cache sync failure. This fix allows the garbage collector to eventually continue garbage collecting other resources if a given resource cannot be listed or watched. Any objects in the unsynced resource type with owner references with `blockOwnerDeletion: true` will not be known to the garbage collector. Use of `blockOwnerDeletion` has always been best-effort and racy on startup and object creation. With this fix, it continues to be best-effort for resources that...

* Add logging of route53 calls ([#39964](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/39964), [@justinsb](https://github.com/justinsb))

### Garbage Collector

* Owner references can now be set during creation, even if the user doesn't have deletion power ([#63403](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63403), [@deads2k](https://github.com/deads2k))

- Updating kubelet permissions check for Windows nodes to see if process is elevated instead of checking if process owner is in Administrators group ([#108146](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108146), [@marosset](https://github.com/marosset))

- Changed how the API server handles updates to `.spec.defaultBackend` of Ingress objects.