diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
index 1c44d2dbb95..6dfa9614331 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
@@ -21,11 +21,12 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	DefaultServiceDNSDomain  = "cluster.local"
-	DefaultServicesSubnet    = "10.96.0.0/12"
-	DefaultKubernetesVersion = "v1.4.4"
-	DefaultAPIBindPort       = 6443
-	DefaultDiscoveryBindPort = 9898
+	DefaultServiceDNSDomain          = "cluster.local"
+	DefaultServicesSubnet            = "10.96.0.0/12"
+	DefaultKubernetesVersion         = "stable"
+	DefaultKubernetesFallbackVersion = "v1.4.6"
+	DefaultAPIBindPort               = 6443
+	DefaultDiscoveryBindPort         = 9898
 )
 
 func addDefaultingFuncs(scheme *runtime.Scheme) error {
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go
index 6107f589427..aa889816701 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go
@@ -193,6 +193,18 @@ func NewInit(cfgPath string, cfg *kubeadmapi.MasterConfiguration, skipPreFlight
 		fmt.Println("Skipping pre-flight checks")
 	}
 
+	// validate version argument
+	ver, err := kubeadmutil.KubernetesReleaseVersion(cfg.KubernetesVersion)
+	if err != nil {
+		if cfg.KubernetesVersion != kubeadmapiext.DefaultKubernetesVersion {
+			return nil, err
+		} else {
+			ver = kubeadmapiext.DefaultKubernetesFallbackVersion
+		}
+	}
+	cfg.KubernetesVersion = ver
+	fmt.Println("Using Kubernetes version:", ver)
+
 	// TODO(phase1+) create a custom flag
 	if cfg.CloudProvider != "" {
 		if cloudprovider.IsCloudProvider(cfg.CloudProvider) {
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
index 26711473cce..c537e8d1dd2 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ go_library(
         "error.go",
         "kubeconfig.go",
         "tokens.go",
+        "version.go",
     ],
     tags = ["automanaged"],
     deps = [
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ go_test(
         "error_test.go",
         "kubeconfig_test.go",
         "tokens_test.go",
+        "version_test.go",
     ],
     library = "go_default_library",
     tags = ["automanaged"],
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..86946024bd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package util
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"net/http"
+	"regexp"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+var (
+	kubeReleaseBucketURL  = "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release"
+	kubeReleaseRegex      = regexp.MustCompile(`^v(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)([-0-9a-zA-Z_\.+]*)?$`)
+	kubeReleaseLabelRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`^[[:lower:]]+(-[-\w_\.]+)?$`)
+)
+
+// KubernetesReleaseVersion is helper function that can fetch
+// available version information from release servers based on
+// label names, like "stable" or "latest".
+//
+// If argument is already semantic version string, it
+// will return same string.
+//
+// In case of labels, it tries to fetch from release
+// servers and then return actual semantic version.
+//
+// Available names on release servers:
+//  stable      (latest stable release)
+//  stable-1    (latest stable release in 1.x)
+//  stable-1.0  (and similarly 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ...)
+//  latest      (latest release, including alpha/beta)
+//  latest-1    (latest release in 1.x, including alpha/beta)
+//  latest-1.0  (and similarly 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ...)
+func KubernetesReleaseVersion(version string) (string, error) {
+	if kubeReleaseRegex.MatchString(version) {
+		return version, nil
+	} else if kubeReleaseLabelRegex.MatchString(version) {
+		url := fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s.txt", kubeReleaseBucketURL, version)
+		resp, err := http.Get(url)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: unable to get URL %q: %s", url, err.Error())
+		}
+		defer resp.Body.Close()
+		if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: unable to fetch release information. URL: %q Status: %v", url, resp.Status)
+		}
+		body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: unable to read content of URL %q: %s", url, err.Error())
+		}
+		// Re-validate received version and return.
+		return KubernetesReleaseVersion(strings.Trim(string(body), " \t\n"))
+	}
+	return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: version %q doesn't match patterns for neither semantic version nor labels (stable, latest, ...)", version)
+}
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d8444bc0c0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package util
+
+import (
+	"net/http"
+	"net/http/httptest"
+	"path"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestEmptyVersion(t *testing.T) {
+
+	ver, err := KubernetesReleaseVersion("")
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Error("KubernetesReleaseVersion returned succesfully, but error expected")
+	}
+	if ver != "" {
+		t.Error("KubernetesReleaseVersion returned value, expected only error")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestValidVersion(t *testing.T) {
+	validVersions := []string{
+		"v1.3.0",
+		"v1.4.0-alpha.0",
+		"v1.4.5",
+		"v1.4.0-beta.0",
+		"v2.0.0",
+		"v1.6.0-alpha.0.536+d60d9f3269288f",
+		"v1.5.0-alpha.0.1078+1044b6822497da-pull",
+		"v1.5.0-alpha.1.822+49b9e32fad9f32-pull-gke-gci",
+	}
+	for _, s := range validVersions {
+		ver, err := KubernetesReleaseVersion(s)
+		t.Log("Valid: ", s, ver, err)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("KubernetesReleaseVersion unexpected error for version %q: %v", s, err)
+		}
+		if ver != s {
+			t.Errorf("KubernetesReleaseVersion should return same valid version string. %q != %q", s, ver)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestInvalidVersion(t *testing.T) {
+	invalidVersions := []string{
+		"v1.3",
+		"1.4.0",
+		"1.4.5+git",
+		"something1.2",
+	}
+	for _, s := range invalidVersions {
+		ver, err := KubernetesReleaseVersion(s)
+		t.Log("Invalid: ", s, ver, err)
+		if err == nil {
+			t.Errorf("KubernetesReleaseVersion error expected for version %q, but returned succesfully", s)
+		}
+		if ver != "" {
+			t.Errorf("KubernetesReleaseVersion should return empty string in case of error. Returned %q for version %q", ver, s)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestVersionFromNetwork(t *testing.T) {
+	type T struct {
+		Content       string
+		Status        int
+		Expected      string
+		ErrorExpected bool
+	}
+	cases := map[string]T{
+		"stable":     {"stable-1", http.StatusOK, "v1.4.6", false}, // recursive pointer to stable-1
+		"stable-1":   {"v1.4.6", http.StatusOK, "v1.4.6", false},
+		"stable-1.3": {"v1.3.10", http.StatusOK, "v1.3.10", false},
+		"latest":     {"v1.6.0-alpha.0", http.StatusOK, "v1.6.0-alpha.0", false},
+		"latest-1.3": {"v1.3.11-beta.0", http.StatusOK, "v1.3.11-beta.0", false},
+		"empty":      {"", http.StatusOK, "", true},
+		"garbage":    {"<?xml version='1.0'?><Error><Code>NoSuchKey</Code><Message>The specified key does not exist.</Message></Error>", http.StatusOK, "", true},
+		"unknown":    {"The requested URL was not found on this server.", http.StatusNotFound, "", true},
+	}
+	server := httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		key := strings.TrimSuffix(path.Base(r.URL.Path), ".txt")
+		res, found := cases[key]
+		if found {
+			http.Error(w, res.Content, res.Status)
+		} else {
+			http.Error(w, "Unknown test case key!", http.StatusNotFound)
+		}
+	}))
+	defer server.Close()
+
+	kubeReleaseBucketURL = server.URL
+
+	for k, v := range cases {
+		ver, err := KubernetesReleaseVersion(k)
+		t.Logf("Key: %q. Result: %q, Error: %v", k, ver, err)
+		switch {
+		case err != nil && !v.ErrorExpected:
+			t.Errorf("KubernetesReleaseVersion: unexpected error for %q. Error: %v", k, err)
+		case err == nil && v.ErrorExpected:
+			t.Errorf("KubernetesReleaseVersion: error expected for key %q, but result is %q", k, ver)
+		case ver != v.Expected:
+			t.Errorf("KubernetesReleaseVersion: unexpected result for key %q. Expected: %q Actual: %q", k, v.Expected, ver)
+		}
+	}
+}