- Sync node status during kubelet node shutdown.
  Adds an pod admission handler that rejects new pods when the node is in progress of shutting down. ([#98005](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/98005), [@wzshiming](https://github.com/wzshiming)) [SIG Node]

- Kubeadm: fix a bug where file copy(backup) could not be executed correctly on Windows platform during upgrade ([#117861](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117861), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]

  a bug in the transforming informer during the Resync operation, 
  by making the transforming function idempotent. ([#124352](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124352), [@wojtek-t](https://github.com/wojtek-t)) [SIG API Machinery and Scheduling]

### Instrumentation

* The `spec.SecurityContext.Sysctls` field is now dropped during creation of `Pod` objects unless the `Sysctls` feature gate is enabled. ([#72752](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/72752), [@rajathagasthya](https://github.com/rajathagasthya))
    * The `spec.AllowedUnsafeSysctls` and `spec.ForbiddenSysctls` fields are now dropped during creation of `PodSecurityPolicy` objects unless the `Sysctls` feature gate is enabled.

- Remove ready file and its directory (which is created during volume SetUp) during emptyDir volume TearDown. ([#95770](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/95770), [@jingxu97](https://github.com/jingxu97)) [SIG Storage]

### Other (Cleanup or Flake)

  // Values with non-UTF-8 byte sequences must use the BinaryData field.
  // The keys stored in Data must not overlap with the keys in
  // the BinaryData field, this is enforced during validation process.
  // +optional
  map<string, string> data = 2;

  // BinaryData contains the binary data.
  // Each key must consist of alphanumeric characters, '-', '_' or '.'.

- Kubeadm: during kubelet health checks, respect the healthz address:port configured in the KubeletConfiguration instead of hardcoding localhost:10248. ([#125286](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/125286), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123)) [SIG...

- Fixed a bug where vSphere client connections where not being closed during testing. Leaked vSphere client sessions were causing resource exhaustion during automated testing. ([#107337](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/107337), [@derek-pryor](https://github.com/derek-pryor))

* fix data loss issue if using existing azure disk with partitions in disk mount  ([#63270](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/63270), [@andyzhangx](https://github.com/andyzhangx))
* Fixed API server panic during concurrent GET or LIST requests with non-empty `resourceVersion`. ([#65092](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/65092), [@sttts](https://github.com/sttts))