* - Update debian-iptables image for CVEs.
    * - Change chain name to IP-MASQ to be compatible with the
    * pre-injected masquerade rules.

For more information, see [#53288](https://issue.k8s.io/53288).

* `kubeadm init` and `kubeadm join` invocations on newly installed systems can encounter a `/var/lib/kubelet is not empty` message during pre-flight checks that prevents setup. If this is the only pre-flight failure, it can be safely ignored with `--skip-preflight-checks`.

For more information, see [#53356](https://issue.k8s.io/53356#issuecomment-333748618).

    * - Update debian-iptables image for CVEs.
    * - Change chain name to IP-MASQ to be compatible with the
    * pre-injected masquerade rules.
* Fix VMWare VM freezing bug by reverting [#51066](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51066) ([#67825](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/67825), [@nikopen](https://github.com/nikopen))

### Introducing Windows CSI support alpha for Kubernetes

With the release of Kubernetes 1.18, an alpha version of CSI Proxy for Windows is getting released. CSI proxy enables non-privileged (pre-approved) containers to perform privileged storage operations on Windows. CSI drivers can now be supported in Windows by leveraging CSI proxy.
SIG Storage made a lot of progress in the 1.18 release.

- Kubeadm: perform pre-flight validation on host/node name upon `kubeadm init` and `kubeadm join`, showing warnings on non-compliant names ([#99194](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/99194), [@pacoxu](https://github.com/pacoxu))

- kubeadm: remove the AuditPolicyConfiguration feature gate ([#70807](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70807), [@Klaven](https://github.com/Klaven))
- kubeadm pre-pulls Etcd image only if external Etcd is not used and --etcd-upgrade=false is not specified ([#70743](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/70743), [@bart0sh](https://github.com/bart0sh))

- The kube-proxy `sync_proxy_rules_iptables_total` metric has now reverted back
  to its pre-1.27 behavior of tracking the total number of iptables rules that
  kube-proxy is responsible for, rather than only counting the number of rules
  that it re-synced on the last sync. The new `sync_proxy_rules_iptables_last`

- Add support for cgroups v2 node validation ([#89901](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/89901), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle and Node]
- Add support for pre allocated huge pages with different sizes, on node level ([#89252](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/89252), [@odinuge](https://github.com/odinuge)) [SIG Apps and Node]

### (No, really, you MUST read this before you upgrade)

- Audit log files are now created with a mode of 0600. Existing file permissions will not be changed. If you need the audit file to be readable by a non-root user, you can pre-create the file with the desired permissions. ([#95387](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/95387), [@JAORMX](https://github.com/JAORMX)) [SIG API Machinery and Auth]

- Scheduling Framework: expose Run[Pre]ScorePlugins functions to PreemptionHandle which can be used in PostFilter extension point. ([#93534](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93534), [@everpeace](https://github.com/everpeace)) [SIG Scheduling and Testing]