diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
index 9ac2c135d8e..ab02e96d264 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
@@ -1084,7 +1084,7 @@ func addCommonChecks(execer utilsexec.Interface, k8sVersion string, nodeReg *kub
 
 	// non-windows checks
 	checks = addSwapCheck(checks)
-	checks = addExecChecks(checks, execer)
+	checks = addExecChecks(checks, execer, k8sVersion)
 	checks = append(checks,
 		SystemVerificationCheck{},
 		HostnameCheck{nodeName: nodeReg.Name},
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
index 07b770050f2..97578a46140 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 
+	utilversion "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version"
 	system "k8s.io/system-validators/validators"
 	utilsexec "k8s.io/utils/exec"
 )
@@ -72,9 +73,16 @@ func addSwapCheck(checks []Checker) []Checker {
 }
 
 // addExecChecks adds checks that verify if certain binaries are in PATH
-func addExecChecks(checks []Checker, execer utilsexec.Interface) []Checker {
+func addExecChecks(checks []Checker, execer utilsexec.Interface, k8sVersion string) []Checker {
+	// For k8s >= 1.32.0, kube-proxy no longer depends on conntrack to be present in PATH
+	// (ref: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126952)
+	if v, err := utilversion.ParseSemantic(k8sVersion); err == nil {
+		if v.LessThan(utilversion.MustParseSemantic("1.32.0")) {
+			checks = append(checks, InPathCheck{executable: "conntrack", mandatory: true, exec: execer})
+		}
+	}
+
 	checks = append(checks,
-		InPathCheck{executable: "conntrack", mandatory: true, exec: execer},
 		InPathCheck{executable: "ip", mandatory: true, exec: execer},
 		InPathCheck{executable: "iptables", mandatory: true, exec: execer},
 		InPathCheck{executable: "mount", mandatory: true, exec: execer},
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go
index 62c6d9ba9dc..171d4bf80a6 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go
@@ -50,6 +50,6 @@ func addSwapCheck(checks []Checker) []Checker {
 
 // addExecChecks adds checks that verify if certain binaries are in PATH
 // No-op for Darwin (MacOS), Windows.
-func addExecChecks(checks []Checker, _ utilsexec.Interface) []Checker {
+func addExecChecks(checks []Checker, _ utilsexec.Interface, _ string) []Checker {
 	return checks
 }