diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode.go
index ac839a53521..078a976c4a5 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode.go
@@ -75,6 +75,10 @@ var Encode cbor.EncMode = func() cbor.EncMode {
 		// Encode struct field names to the byte string type rather than the text string
 		// type.
 		FieldName: cbor.FieldNameToByteString,
+
+		// Marshal Go byte arrays to CBOR arrays of integers (as in JSON) instead of byte
+		// strings.
+		ByteArray: cbor.ByteArrayToArray,
 	}.EncMode()
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode_test.go
index e9d8906e502..48273ede2e3 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode_test.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/encode_test.go
@@ -64,6 +64,12 @@ func TestEncode(t *testing.T) {
 				}
 			}),
 		},
+		{
+			name:          "byte array encodes to array of integers",
+			in:            [3]byte{0x01, 0x02, 0x03},
+			want:          []byte{0x83, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03}, // [1, 2, 3]
+			assertOnError: assertNilError,
+		},
 	} {
 		encModes := tc.modes
 		if len(encModes) == 0 {
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/roundtrip_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/roundtrip_test.go
index aa411532de3..187701e23dd 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/roundtrip_test.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/cbor/internal/modes/roundtrip_test.go
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ func TestRoundtrip(t *testing.T) {
 			name: "nil slice",
 			obj:  []interface{}(nil),
 		},
+		{
+			name: "byte array",
+			obj:  [3]byte{0x01, 0x02, 0x03},
+		},
 		{
 			name: "nil map",
 			obj:  map[string]interface{}(nil),