diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/BUILD
index c07a3d72d9b..a1de9a88fe7 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/BUILD
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ load(
     "go_binary",
     "go_library",
 )
-load("//vendor/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version:def.bzl", "version_x_defs")
+load("//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:def.bzl", "version_x_defs")
 
 go_binary(
     name = "kubeadm",
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/BUILD
index 7a1263a5875..d2d41fd7663 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/BUILD
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ filegroup(
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig:all-srcs",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight:all-srcs",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util:all-srcs",
+        "//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:all-srcs",
     ],
     tags = ["automanaged"],
 )
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/BUILD
index 8e7dabbd7e7..17da3608e5c 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/BUILD
@@ -47,13 +47,13 @@ go_library(
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/kubeconfig:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/runtime:go_default_library",
+        "//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/fields:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/duration:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/version:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes:go_default_library",
-        "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/tools/clientcmd:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/tools/clientcmd/api:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/cluster-bootstrap/token/api:go_default_library",
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/BUILD
index 03dcb75e035..ffabe5e1a2a 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/BUILD
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ go_library(
     visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
     deps = [
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1beta2:go_default_library",
-        "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version:go_default_library",
+        "//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:go_default_library",
     ],
 )
 
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ go_test(
     embed = [":go_default_library"],
     deps = [
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1beta2:go_default_library",
-        "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version:go_default_library",
+        "//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:go_default_library",
     ],
 )
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go
index 6d21f4e0d3c..017c65ebf13 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ limitations under the License.
 package phases
 
 import (
-	"k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version"
 	kubeadmapiv1beta2 "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1beta2"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version"
 )
 
 // SetKubernetesVersion gets the current Kubeadm version and sets it as KubeadmVersion in the config,
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util_test.go
index 52b3a730adb..39523c65f55 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util_test.go
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@ package phases
 import (
 	"testing"
 
-	"k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version"
 	kubeadmapiv1beta2 "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1beta2"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version"
 )
 
 func TestSetKubernetesVersion(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/version.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/version.go
index bef91d72768..e6f6675ec7f 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/version.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/version.go
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ import (
 	"sigs.k8s.io/yaml"
 
 	apimachineryversion "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/version"
-	"k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version"
 	kubeadmutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version"
 )
 
 // Version provides the version information of kubeadm.
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/BUILD
index 379c8361e6a..3d3fe01ab88 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/BUILD
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ go_library(
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/dryrun:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/etcd:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/staticpod:go_default_library",
+        "//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/api/apps/v1:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/api/core/v1:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/errors:go_default_library",
@@ -43,7 +44,6 @@ go_library(
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes:go_default_library",
-        "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/pkg/errors:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/utils/pointer:go_default_library",
     ],
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/versiongetter.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/versiongetter.go
index 9af1ddf5c06..2cbd8195ed1 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/versiongetter.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade/versiongetter.go
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ import (
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	versionutil "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version"
 	clientset "k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
-	"k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version"
 	kubeadmutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util"
+	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version"
 )
 
 // VersionGetter defines an interface for fetching different versions.
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/BUILD
index 901cbde89ed..2640ce4aa28 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/BUILD
@@ -24,12 +24,12 @@ go_library(
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/initsystem:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/runtime:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/util/system:go_default_library",
+        "//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/registry/core/service/ipallocator:go_default_library",
         "//pkg/util/ipvs:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/net:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version:go_default_library",
-        "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/PuerkitoBio/purell:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/blang/semver:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/pkg/errors:go_default_library",
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
index c10cc697af2..b106a729a8a 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@ import (
 	netutil "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/net"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets"
 	versionutil "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version"
-	kubeadmversion "k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version"
 	"k8s.io/klog"
 	kubeadmapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm"
 	kubeadmconstants "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
@@ -48,6 +47,7 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/initsystem"
 	utilruntime "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/runtime"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/system"
+	kubeadmversion "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/registry/core/service/ipallocator"
 	ipvsutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/ipvs"
 	utilsexec "k8s.io/utils/exec"
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
index c4801be081e..4f21d0d31a4 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ go_library(
     deps = [
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm:go_default_library",
         "//cmd/kubeadm/app/constants:go_default_library",
+        "//cmd/kubeadm/app/version:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer:go_default_library",
@@ -28,7 +29,6 @@ go_library(
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/yaml:go_default_library",
         "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes/scheme:go_default_library",
-        "//staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/pkg/errors:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/klog:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/utils/exec:go_default_library",
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
index 88c5139a3ca..1e0c512f3c6 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
@@ -28,9 +28,9 @@ import (
 
 	netutil "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/net"
 	versionutil "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/version"
-	pkgversion "k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version"
 	"k8s.io/klog"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
+	pkgversion "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version"
 )
 
 const (
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/BUILD
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b18bcbff7f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/BUILD
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_library")
+
+go_library(
+    name = "go_default_library",
+    srcs = [
+        "base.go",
+        "version.go",
+    ],
+    importpath = "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version",
+    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
+    deps = ["//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/version:go_default_library"],
+)
+
+filegroup(
+    name = "package-srcs",
+    srcs = glob(["**"]),
+    tags = ["automanaged"],
+    visibility = ["//visibility:private"],
+)
+
+filegroup(
+    name = "all-srcs",
+    srcs = [":package-srcs"],
+    tags = ["automanaged"],
+    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
+)
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/base.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/base.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c84c6d2d1c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/base.go
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2019 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 version
+
+// Base version information.
+//
+// This is the fallback data used when version information from git is not
+// provided via go ldflags. It provides an approximation of the Kubernetes
+// version for ad-hoc builds (e.g. `go build`) that cannot get the version
+// information from git.
+//
+// If you are looking at these fields in the git tree, they look
+// strange. They are modified on the fly by the build process. The
+// in-tree values are dummy values used for "git archive", which also
+// works for GitHub tar downloads.
+//
+// When releasing a new Kubernetes version, this file is updated by
+// build/mark_new_version.sh to reflect the new version, and then a
+// git annotated tag (using format vX.Y where X == Major version and Y
+// == Minor version) is created to point to the commit that updates
+// pkg/version/base.go
+var (
+	// TODO: Deprecate gitMajor and gitMinor, use only gitVersion
+	// instead. First step in deprecation, keep the fields but make
+	// them irrelevant. (Next we'll take it out, which may muck with
+	// scripts consuming the kubectl version output - but most of
+	// these should be looking at gitVersion already anyways.)
+	gitMajor string // major version, always numeric
+	gitMinor string // minor version, numeric possibly followed by "+"
+
+	// semantic version, derived by build scripts (see
+	// https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/contributors/design-proposals/release/versioning.md
+	// for a detailed discussion of this field)
+	//
+	// TODO: This field is still called "gitVersion" for legacy
+	// reasons. For prerelease versions, the build metadata on the
+	// semantic version is a git hash, but the version itself is no
+	// longer the direct output of "git describe", but a slight
+	// translation to be semver compliant.
+
+	// NOTE: The $Format strings are replaced during 'git archive' thanks to the
+	// companion .gitattributes file containing 'export-subst' in this same
+	// directory.  See also https://git-scm.com/docs/gitattributes
+	gitVersion   = "v0.0.0-master+$Format:%h$"
+	gitCommit    = "$Format:%H$" // sha1 from git, output of $(git rev-parse HEAD)
+	gitTreeState = ""            // state of git tree, either "clean" or "dirty"
+
+	buildDate = "1970-01-01T00:00:00Z" // build date in ISO8601 format, output of $(date -u +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')
+)
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/def.bzl b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/def.bzl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..35f0d34a9ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/def.bzl
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+# Copyright 2017 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.
+
+# Implements hack/lib/version.sh's kube::version::ldflags() for Bazel.
+# Modifies the version variables (stamp_vars:buildDate, gitCommit, ...)
+# Example go build command with ldflags:
+#   go install ... -ldflags -X 'k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/cmd/version.gitMinor=12+' ...
+def version_x_defs():
+    stamp_pkgs = [
+        "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/version",
+    ]
+
+    # This should match the list of vars in kube::version::ldflags
+    # It should also match the list of vars set in hack/print-workspace-status.sh.
+    stamp_vars = [
+        "buildDate",
+        "gitCommit",
+        "gitMajor",
+        "gitMinor",
+        "gitTreeState",
+        "gitVersion",
+    ]
+
+    # Generate the cross-product.
+    x_defs = {}
+    for pkg in stamp_pkgs:
+        for var in stamp_vars:
+            x_defs["%s.%s" % (pkg, var)] = "{%s}" % var
+    return x_defs
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/version.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/version.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d1e76dc00e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/version/version.go
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2019 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 version
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"runtime"
+
+	apimachineryversion "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/version"
+)
+
+// Get returns the overall codebase version. It's for detecting
+// what code a binary was built from.
+func Get() apimachineryversion.Info {
+	// These variables typically come from -ldflags settings and in
+	// their absence fallback to the settings in ./base.go
+	return apimachineryversion.Info{
+		Major:        gitMajor,
+		Minor:        gitMinor,
+		GitVersion:   gitVersion,
+		GitCommit:    gitCommit,
+		GitTreeState: gitTreeState,
+		BuildDate:    buildDate,
+		GoVersion:    runtime.Version(),
+		Compiler:     runtime.Compiler,
+		Platform:     fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", runtime.GOOS, runtime.GOARCH),
+	}
+}
diff --git a/hack/lib/version.sh b/hack/lib/version.sh
index b8890c9255e..df71e649ced 100644
--- a/hack/lib/version.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/version.sh
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ kube::version::ldflags() {
       "-X '${KUBE_GO_PACKAGE}/pkg/version.${key}=${val}'"
       "-X '${KUBE_GO_PACKAGE}/vendor/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/version.${key}=${val}'"
       "-X '${KUBE_GO_PACKAGE}/pkg/kubectl/version.${key}=${val}'"
+      "-X '${KUBE_GO_PACKAGE}/cmd/kubeadm/app/version.${key}=${val}'"
     )
   }