- Kube-apiserver: errors decoding objects in etcd are now recorded in an `apiserver_storage_decode_errors_total` counter metric ([#114376](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/114376), [@baomingwang](https://github.com/baomingwang)) [SIG API Machinery and Instrumentation]

* Websocket requests may now authenticate to the API server by passing a bearer token in a websocket subprotocol of the form `base64url.bearer.authorization.k8s.io.<base64url-encoded-bearer-token>`. ([#47740](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/47740), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

- The `apiserver.latency.k8s.io/decode-response-object` annotation was added to the audit log to record the decoding time. ([#121512](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/121512), [@HirazawaUi](https://github.com/HirazawaUi))

- `kubeadm`: improved the logic that checks whether a `systemd` service exists. ([#120514](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120514), [@fengxsong](https://github.com/fengxsong))
- `kubeadm`: will now use universal deserializer to decode static pod. ([#120549](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/120549), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu))
- `kubectl prune v2`: Switched annotation from `contains-group-resources` to `contains-group-kinds`,

  with `scheme: HTTPS` that encounter errors indicating the endpoint is actually
  using HTTP fall back to making the request over HTTP for compatibility with
  previous releases. When this happens, a `LifecycleHTTPFallback` event is recorded
  in the namespace of the pod and a `kubelet_lifecycle_handler_http_fallbacks_total`
  metric in the kubelet is incremented. Cluster administrators can opt out of the
  expanded lifecycle handler capabilities by setting