`v1.12.1`. The cgroups validator now throws an error instead of a warning if cgroups v1 is detected on the host and the provided KubeletVersion is `v1.35` or newer.
  
  kubeadm: Started using `k8s.io/system-validators` `v1.12.1` in `kubeadm` `v1.35`. During `kubeadm init`, `kubeadm join`, and `kubeadm upgrade`, the SystemVerification preflight check throws an error if cgroups v1 is detected and the detected `kubelet` version is `v1.35` or newer. For older versions of `kubelet`, a preflight warning...

- Stdin is now only passed to client-go exec credential plugins when it is detected to be an interactive terminal. Previously, it was passed to client-go exec plugins when **stdout** was detected to be an interactive terminal. ([#99654](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/99654), [@ankeesler](https://github.com/ankeesler)) [SIG API Machinery and Auth]

  - A namespaced object with an ownerReference referencing a uid of a namespaced kind which does not exist in the same namespace is now consistently treated as though that owner does not exist, and the child object is deleted.

  * Upgrade Node Problem Detector to v0.4.1. New features added:

    * Add /dev/kmsg support for kernel log parsing. ([#112](https://github.com/kubernetes/node-problem-detector/pull/112), [@euank](https://github.com/euank))

    * Add ABRT support. ([#105](https://github.com/kubernetes/node-problem-detector/pull/105), [@juliusmilan](https://github.com/juliusmilan))

- Fix: the volume is not detached after the pod and PVC objects are deleted ([#117339](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117339), [@cvvz](https://github.com/cvvz)) [SIG Storage]

- Fixed an issue in the CEL CIDR library where subnets contained within another CIDR were incorrectly rejected as not being contained. ([#130450](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/130450), [@JoelSpeed](https://github.com/JoelSpeed))

- Finalizer Protection for Service LoadBalancers (ServiceLoadBalancerFinalizer) has been added as an Alpha feature, which is disabled by default. This feature ensures the Service resource is not fully deleted until the correlating load balancer resources are deleted. ([#78262](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/78262), [@MrHohn](https://github.com/MrHohn))

- Added validation to reject Pods using the `PodLevelResources` feature on Windows OS due to lack of support. The API server rejected Pods with pod-level resources and a `Pod.spec.os.name` targeting Windows. Kubelet on nodes running Windows also rejected Pods with pod-level resources at the admission phase. ([#133046](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/133046), [@toVersus](https://github.com/toVersus)) [SIG Apps and Node]

* Fix log spam due to unnecessary status update when node is deleted. ([#45923](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/45923), [@verult](https://github.com/verult))

- The scheduling queue didn't notice any extenders' failures, it could miss some cluster events,
  and it could end up Pods rejected by Extenders stuck in unschedulable pod pool in 5min in the worst-case scenario.
  Now, the scheduling queue notices extenders' failures and requeue Pods rejected by Extenders appropriately. ([#122022](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/122022), [@sanposhiho](https://github.com/sanposhiho)) [SIG Scheduling]