diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init_test.go
index ef380388af2..2f859752819 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init_test.go
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ func TestNewInitData(t *testing.T) {
 	}{
 		// Init data passed using flags
 		{
-			name: "pass without any flag except the cri socket (use defaults)",
+			name: "pass without any flag (use defaults)",
 		},
 		{
 			name: "fail if unknown feature gates flag are passed",
@@ -188,17 +188,9 @@ func TestNewInitData(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			// initialize an external init option and inject it to the init cmd
 			initOptions := newInitOptions()
+			initOptions.skipCRIDetect = true // avoid CRI detection in unit tests
 			cmd := newCmdInit(nil, initOptions)
 
-			// set the cri socket here, otherwise the testcase might fail if is run on the node with multiple
-			// cri endpoints configured, the failure caused by this is normally not an expected failure.
-			if tc.flags == nil {
-				tc.flags = make(map[string]string)
-			}
-			// set `cri-socket` only if `CfgPath` is not set
-			if _, okay := tc.flags[options.CfgPath]; !okay {
-				tc.flags[options.NodeCRISocket] = constants.UnknownCRISocket
-			}
 			// sets cmd flags (that will be reflected on the init options)
 			for f, v := range tc.flags {
 				cmd.Flags().Set(f, v)
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/join_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/join_test.go
index 2487193d42b..1ab6327f405 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/join_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/join_test.go
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ import (
 	kubeadmapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm"
 	kubeadmapiv1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1beta3"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/options"
-	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
 	kubeconfigutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/kubeconfig"
 )
 
@@ -312,6 +311,7 @@ func TestNewJoinData(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			// initialize an external join option and inject it to the join cmd
 			joinOptions := newJoinOptions()
+			joinOptions.skipCRIDetect = true // avoid CRI detection in unit tests
 			cmd := newCmdJoin(nil, joinOptions)
 
 			// set klog output destination to bytes.Buffer so that log could be fetched and verified later.
@@ -320,15 +320,6 @@ func TestNewJoinData(t *testing.T) {
 			klog.LogToStderr(false)
 			defer klog.LogToStderr(true)
 
-			// set the cri socket here, otherwise the testcase might fail if is run on the node with multiple
-			// cri endpoints configured, the failure caused by this is normally not an expected failure.
-			if tc.flags == nil {
-				tc.flags = make(map[string]string)
-			}
-			// set `cri-socket` only if `CfgPath` is not set
-			if _, okay := tc.flags[options.CfgPath]; !okay {
-				tc.flags[options.NodeCRISocket] = constants.UnknownCRISocket
-			}
 			// sets cmd flags (that will be reflected on the join options)
 			for f, v := range tc.flags {
 				cmd.Flags().Set(f, v)
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants/constants.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants/constants.go
index 2f0d30bd488..869d4340c2f 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants/constants.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants/constants.go
@@ -261,9 +261,6 @@ const (
 	// init/join time for use later. kubeadm annotates the node object with this information
 	AnnotationKubeadmCRISocket = "kubeadm.alpha.kubernetes.io/cri-socket"
 
-	// UnknownCRISocket defines the undetected or unknown CRI socket
-	UnknownCRISocket = "unix:///var/run/unknown.sock"
-
 	// KubeadmConfigConfigMap specifies in what ConfigMap in the kube-system namespace the `kubeadm init` configuration should be stored
 	KubeadmConfigConfigMap = "kubeadm-config"
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig_test.go
index a5eb4bc0413..31fbe7c5dae 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig_test.go
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ func TestUploadConfiguration(t *testing.T) {
 			cfg.ComponentConfigs = kubeadmapi.ComponentConfigMap{}
 			cfg.ClusterConfiguration.KubernetesVersion = kubeadmconstants.MinimumControlPlaneVersion.WithPatch(10).String()
 			cfg.NodeRegistration.Name = "node-foo"
-			cfg.NodeRegistration.CRISocket = kubeadmconstants.UnknownCRISocket
+			cfg.NodeRegistration.CRISocket = kubeadmconstants.DefaultCRISocket
 
 			client := clientsetfake.NewSimpleClientset()
 			// For idempotent test, we check the result of the second call.