diff --git a/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server.go b/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server.go
index 7a5b0c861c5..7d41ec8df27 100644
--- a/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server.go
+++ b/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server.go
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/oom"
 	"k8s.io/utils/exec"
 	netutils "k8s.io/utils/net"
-	utilpointer "k8s.io/utils/pointer"
+	"k8s.io/utils/pointer"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -182,8 +182,8 @@ func (o *Options) AddFlags(fs *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	fs.MarkDeprecated("healthz-port", "This flag is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use --healthz-bind-address instead.")
 	fs.Int32Var(&o.metricsPort, "metrics-port", o.metricsPort, "The port to bind the metrics server. Use 0 to disable.")
 	fs.MarkDeprecated("metrics-port", "This flag is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use --metrics-bind-address instead.")
-	fs.Int32Var(o.config.OOMScoreAdj, "oom-score-adj", utilpointer.Int32PtrDerefOr(o.config.OOMScoreAdj, int32(qos.KubeProxyOOMScoreAdj)), "The oom-score-adj value for kube-proxy process. Values must be within the range [-1000, 1000]. This parameter is ignored if a config file is specified by --config.")
-	fs.Int32Var(o.config.IPTables.MasqueradeBit, "iptables-masquerade-bit", utilpointer.Int32PtrDerefOr(o.config.IPTables.MasqueradeBit, 14), "If using the pure iptables proxy, the bit of the fwmark space to mark packets requiring SNAT with.  Must be within the range [0, 31].")
+	fs.Int32Var(o.config.OOMScoreAdj, "oom-score-adj", pointer.Int32Deref(o.config.OOMScoreAdj, int32(qos.KubeProxyOOMScoreAdj)), "The oom-score-adj value for kube-proxy process. Values must be within the range [-1000, 1000]. This parameter is ignored if a config file is specified by --config.")
+	fs.Int32Var(o.config.IPTables.MasqueradeBit, "iptables-masquerade-bit", pointer.Int32Deref(o.config.IPTables.MasqueradeBit, 14), "If using the pure iptables proxy, the bit of the fwmark space to mark packets requiring SNAT with.  Must be within the range [0, 31].")
 	fs.Int32Var(o.config.Conntrack.MaxPerCore, "conntrack-max-per-core", *o.config.Conntrack.MaxPerCore,
 		"Maximum number of NAT connections to track per CPU core (0 to leave the limit as-is and ignore conntrack-min).")
 	fs.Int32Var(o.config.Conntrack.Min, "conntrack-min", *o.config.Conntrack.Min,
diff --git a/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server_test.go b/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server_test.go
index e947de110ae..739b29ccf00 100644
--- a/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kube-proxy/app/server_test.go
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 
-	utilpointer "k8s.io/utils/pointer"
+	"k8s.io/utils/pointer"
 
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	componentbaseconfig "k8s.io/component-base/config"
@@ -68,8 +68,8 @@ func TestGetConntrackMax(t *testing.T) {
 
 	for i, tc := range testCases {
 		cfg := kubeproxyconfig.KubeProxyConntrackConfiguration{
-			Min:        utilpointer.Int32Ptr(tc.min),
-			MaxPerCore: utilpointer.Int32Ptr(tc.maxPerCore),
+			Min:        pointer.Int32(tc.min),
+			MaxPerCore: pointer.Int32(tc.maxPerCore),
 		}
 		x, e := getConntrackMax(cfg)
 		if e != nil {
@@ -240,8 +240,8 @@ nodePortAddresses:
 			ClusterCIDR:      tc.clusterCIDR,
 			ConfigSyncPeriod: metav1.Duration{Duration: 15 * time.Second},
 			Conntrack: kubeproxyconfig.KubeProxyConntrackConfiguration{
-				MaxPerCore:            utilpointer.Int32Ptr(2),
-				Min:                   utilpointer.Int32Ptr(1),
+				MaxPerCore:            pointer.Int32(2),
+				Min:                   pointer.Int32(1),
 				TCPCloseWaitTimeout:   &metav1.Duration{Duration: 10 * time.Second},
 				TCPEstablishedTimeout: &metav1.Duration{Duration: 20 * time.Second},
 			},
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ nodePortAddresses:
 			HostnameOverride:   "foo",
 			IPTables: kubeproxyconfig.KubeProxyIPTablesConfiguration{
 				MasqueradeAll: true,
-				MasqueradeBit: utilpointer.Int32Ptr(17),
+				MasqueradeBit: pointer.Int32(17),
 				MinSyncPeriod: metav1.Duration{Duration: 10 * time.Second},
 				SyncPeriod:    metav1.Duration{Duration: 60 * time.Second},
 			},
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ nodePortAddresses:
 			},
 			MetricsBindAddress: tc.metricsBindAddress,
 			Mode:               kubeproxyconfig.ProxyMode(tc.mode),
-			OOMScoreAdj:        utilpointer.Int32Ptr(17),
+			OOMScoreAdj:        pointer.Int32(17),
 			PortRange:          "2-7",
 			UDPIdleTimeout:     metav1.Duration{Duration: 123 * time.Millisecond},
 			NodePortAddresses:  []string{"10.20.30.40/16", "fd00:1::0/64"},