- Scheduler doesn't run plugin's Filter method when its PreFilter method returned a Skip status.
  In other words, your PreFilter/Filter plugin can return a Skip status in PreFilter if the plugin does nothing in Filter for that Pod.
  Scheduler skips NodeAffinity Filter plugin when NodeAffinity Filter plugin has nothing to do with a Pod.

- Kube-apiserver: the `--encryption-provider-config` file is now loaded with strict deserialization, which fails if the config file contains duplicate or unknown fields. This protects against accidentally running with config files that are malformed, mis-indented, or have typos in field names, and getting unexpected behavior. When `--encryption-provider-config-automatic-reload` is used, new encryption config files that contain typos after the kube-apiserver is running are treated as...

- kubelet: the `--image-credential-provider-config` file was loaded with strict deserialization, which failed if the config file contained duplicate or unknown fields. This protected against accidentally running with malformed config files, unindented files, or typos in field names, and it prevented unexpected behavior. ([#128062](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/128062), [@aramase](https://github.com/aramase))...

struct {
	T1        // field name is T1
	*T2       // field name is T2
	P.T3      // field name is T3
	*P.T4     // field name is T4
	x, y int  // field names are x and y
}
</pre>

<p>
The following declaration is illegal because field names must be unique
in a struct type:
</p>

<pre>
struct {
	T     // conflicts with embedded field *T and *P.T

- Fixed a bug where pv recycler failed to scrub volume with too many files in the directory due to hitting ARG_MAX limit with rm command (#117189). ([#117283](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117283), [@defo89](https://github.com/defo89)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Storage]

- kube-proxy: a configuration file specified via `--config` is now loaded with strict deserialization, which fails if the config file contains duplicate or unknown fields. This protects against accidentally running with config files that are malformed, mis-indented, or have typos in field names, and getting unexpected behavior. ([#82927](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/82927), [@obitech](https...

- Resolves spurious `Failed to list *v1.Secret` or `Failed to list *v1.ConfigMap` messages in kubelet logs. ([#99538](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/99538), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt)) [SIG Auth and Node]

- Fixed an issue with the `garbagecollection` controller registering duplicate event handlers if discovery requests failed. ([#117992](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/117992), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

- Fixed an issue which didn't append OS's environment variables with the one provided in Credential Provider Config file, which may lead to failed execution of external credential provider binary. 
  See https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/102750 ([#103231](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/103231), [@n4j](https://github.com/n4j)) [SIG Auth and Node]

### API Change