*   The admission webhook configurations API, part of the admissionregistration API, is now at v1beta1. Delete any existing webhook configurations before you upgrade, and update your configuration files...

those `$ref` fields. ([#58438](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/58438), [@carlory](https://github.com/carlory))

* Webhooks now do not skip cluster-scoped resources. Before upgrading your Kubernetes clusters, double check whether you have configured webhooks for cluster-scoped objects (e.g., nodes, persistentVolume), as these webhooks will start to take effect. Delete/modify the configs if that's not desirable. ([#58185](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/58185),...

possibility of dry-run requests overwhelming admission webhooks that rely on side effects and a reconciliation mechanism, a new field is being added to `admissionregistration.k8s.io/v1beta1.ValidatingWebhookConfiguration` and `admissionregistration.k8s.io/v1beta1.MutatingWebhookConfiguration` so that webhooks can explicitly register as having dry-run support. If a dry-run request is made on a resource that triggers a non dry-run supporting webhook, the request will be completely rejected, with "400:...

  - When registering with a 1.17+ API server, a CustomResourceDefinition conversion webhook can now request that only `v1` ConversionReview requests be sent to them. Previously, conversion webhooks were required to support receiving `v1beta1` ConversionReview requests as well for...

- Kube-apiserver adds two new alpha metrics `conversion_webhook_request_total` and `conversion_webhook_duration_seconds` that allow users to monitor requests to CRD conversion webhooks, split by result, and failure_type (In case of failure). ([#118292](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118292), [@cchapla](https://github.com/cchapla)) [SIG API Machinery, Architecture...

#tokenreview-v1-authentication-k8s-io) for the new tokens for improved scoping. Under audit logging, the new alpha-level "dynamic audit configuration" adds support for [dynamically registering webhooks to receive a stream of audit events](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/debug/debug-cluster/audit/#webhook-backend). Finally, we've enhanced secrets protection by graduating [etcd encryption](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/encrypt-data/) out of experimental.

### SIG...

* The webhook admission plugin now works even if the API server and the nodes are in two separate networks,for example, in GKE.
The webhook admission plugin now lets the webhook author use the DNS name of the service as the CommonName when generating the server cert for the webhook.
Action required:

- `apiserver_admission_webhook_admission_duration_seconds` buckets have been expanded, 25s is now the largest bucket size to match the webhook default timeout. ([#115802](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115802), [@logicalhan](https://github.com/logicalhan)) [SIG API Machinery and Instrumentation]

### CVE-2021-25735: Validating Admission Webhook does not observe some previous fields

A security issue was discovered in kube-apiserver that could allow node
updates to bypass a Validating Admission Webhook. You are only affected
by this vulnerability if you run a Validating Admission Webhook for Nodes
that denies admission based at least partially on the old state of the
Node object.

    * Before, when users run admission webhook as an addon pod, after they remove the webhook, kube-addon-manager won't cleanup the webhook configuration `MutatingWebhookConfiguration`/`ValidationWebhookConfiguration`, because those resources are not prune-whitelisted. Cluster will go into a bad state that no pod can be admitted.