- The `kubectl patch` command no longer exits with exit code 1 when a redundant patch results in a no-op ([#66725](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/66725), [@juanvallejo](https://github.com/juanvallejo))

* Add CSI Migration Shim for VerifyVolumesAreAttached and BulkVolumeVerify ([#80443](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/80443), [@davidz627](https://github.com/davidz627))

- Fix the panic when kubelet registers if a node object already exists with no Status.Capacity or Status.Allocatable ([#96297](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/96297), [@SataQiu](https://github.com/SataQiu)) [SIG Node]

  - 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.

## Changelog since v1.5.5

### Other notable changes

* kube-up (with gce/gci and gce/coreos providers) now ensures the authentication token file contains correct tokens for the control plane components, even if the file already exists (ensures upgrades and downgrades work successfully) ([#43676](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/43676), [@liggitt](https://github.com/liggitt))

- Fixed a bug that prevents a PersistentVolume that has a PersistentVolumeClaim UID which doesn't exist in local cache but exists in etcd from being updated to the Released phase. ([#105211](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/105211), [@xiaopingrubyist](https://github.com/xiaopingrubyist))

- For `kubeadm`: remove the ClusterStatus API from v1beta3 and its management in the kube-system/kubeadm-config ConfigMap. This method of keeping track of what API endpoints exists in the cluster was replaced (in a prior release) by a method to annotate the etcd Pods that `kubeadm` creates in "stacked etcd" clusters. The following CLI sub-phases are deprecated and are now a NO-OP: for `kubeadm join`: "control-plane-join/update-status",...

- Improve error message when applying CRDs before the CRD exists in a cluster ([#107363](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/107363), [@eddiezane](https://github.com/eddiezane))

### Ephemeral Containers Graduate to Stable

* Skip safe to detach check if node API object no longer exists ([#30737](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/30737), [@saad-ali](https://github.com/saad-ali))