diff --git a/tools/packaging/release/Makefile b/tools/packaging/release/Makefile
index f98d837f46..0053fa8ea7 100644
--- a/tools/packaging/release/Makefile
+++ b/tools/packaging/release/Makefile
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ MK_DIR :=$(shell dirname $(realpath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))
 .PHONY: bump-kata-version
 
 NEW_VERSION :=
-TARGET_BRANCH ?= "master"
+TARGET_BRANCH ?= "main"
 
 # Run update-repository-version.sh
 # $1 : repository to bump
diff --git a/tools/packaging/release/tag_repos.sh b/tools/packaging/release/tag_repos.sh
index 1e51dbd2a4..4d6f3f5c4e 100755
--- a/tools/packaging/release/tag_repos.sh
+++ b/tools/packaging/release/tag_repos.sh
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ script_name="$(basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"
 OWNER=${OWNER:-"kata-containers"}
 PROJECT="Kata Containers"
 PUSH="${PUSH:-"false"}"
-branch="master"
+branch="main"
 readonly URL_RAW_FILE="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/${OWNER}"
 #The runtime version is used as reference of latest release
 # This is set to the right value later.
@@ -134,9 +134,9 @@ tag_repos() {
 
 		do_tag "${tag}"
 
-		if [ "${branch}" == "master" ]; then
+		if [ "${branch}" == "main" ]; then
 			if echo "${tag}" | grep -oP '.*-rc0$'; then
-				info "This is a rc0 for master - creating stable branch"
+				info "This is a rc0 for main - creating stable branch"
 				stable_branch=$(echo ${tag} | awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="."}{print $1 "." $2}')
 				stable_branch="stable-${stable_branch}"
 				info "creating branch ${stable_branch} for ${repo}"
diff --git a/tools/packaging/release/update-repository-version_test.sh b/tools/packaging/release/update-repository-version_test.sh
index d86dee8dfa..9242fd1226 100755
--- a/tools/packaging/release/update-repository-version_test.sh
+++ b/tools/packaging/release/update-repository-version_test.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,6 @@ OK
 
 echo "Local update version update should work"
 new_version="50.0.0-rc0"
-out=$("${script_dir}/update-repository-version.sh" "${new_version}" "master" 2>&1)
+out=$("${script_dir}/update-repository-version.sh" "${new_version}" "main" 2>&1)
 output_should_contain "${out}" "release: Kata Containers ${new_version}"
 OK