diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/common.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/common.go
index a60765f4038..2efc77a49f9 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/common.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/common.go
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/features"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/upgrade"
-	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight"
 	kubeadmutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/apiclient"
@@ -71,15 +70,6 @@ func loadConfig(cfgPath string, client clientset.Interface, skipComponentConfigs
 	// This is probably 90% of the time. So we handle it first.
 	if cfgPath == "" {
 		cfg, err := configutil.FetchInitConfigurationFromCluster(client, printer, logPrefix, false, skipComponentConfigs)
-		// In case we fetch a configuration from the cluster, mutate the ImageRepository field
-		// to be 'registry.k8s.io', if it was 'k8s.gcr.io'.
-		// TODO: Remove this in 1.26
-		// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubeadm/issues/2671
-		if err == nil {
-			if err := uploadconfig.MutateImageRepository(cfg, client); err != nil {
-				return nil, false, err
-			}
-		}
 		return cfg, false, err
 	}
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go
index fd44eb5155f..8d0ebbc3703 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ import (
 	cmdutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/util"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/controlplane"
-	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig"
 	kubeadmutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util"
 	configutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config"
 	kubeconfigutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/kubeconfig"
@@ -120,14 +119,6 @@ func runDiff(flags *diffFlags, args []string) error {
 			return errors.Wrapf(err, "couldn't create a Kubernetes client from file %q", flags.kubeConfigPath)
 		}
 		cfg, err = configutil.FetchInitConfigurationFromCluster(client, nil, "upgrade/diff", false, false)
-		// In case we fetch a configuration from the cluster, mutate the ImageRepository field
-		// to be 'registry.k8s.io', if it was 'k8s.gcr.io'. Don't mutate the in-cluster value by passing
-		// nil as the client field; this is done only on "apply".
-		// TODO: Remove this in 1.26
-		// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubeadm/issues/2671
-		if err == nil {
-			_ = uploadconfig.MutateImageRepository(cfg, nil)
-		}
 	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/node.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/node.go
index b76f78ab55c..43c0d9c41ce 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/node.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/node.go
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ import (
 	phases "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/node"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/workflow"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
-	"k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig"
 	configutil "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/config"
 )
 
@@ -146,12 +145,6 @@ func newNodeData(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string, options *nodeOptions, out io
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "unable to fetch the kubeadm-config ConfigMap")
 	}
-	// In case we fetch a configuration from the cluster, mutate the ImageRepository field
-	// to be 'registry.k8s.io', if it was 'k8s.gcr.io'. Don't mutate the in-cluster value by passing
-	// nil as the client field; this is done only on "apply".
-	// TODO: Remove this in 1.26
-	// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubeadm/issues/2671
-	_ = uploadconfig.MutateImageRepository(cfg, nil)
 
 	ignorePreflightErrorsSet, err := validation.ValidateIgnorePreflightErrors(options.ignorePreflightErrors, cfg.NodeRegistration.IgnorePreflightErrors)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig.go
index 46c776e114b..2c516157700 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/phases/uploadconfig/uploadconfig.go
@@ -19,12 +19,10 @@ package uploadconfig
 import (
 	"fmt"
 
-	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	v1 "k8s.io/api/core/v1"
 	rbac "k8s.io/api/rbac/v1"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	clientset "k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
-	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
 
 	kubeadmapi "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm"
 	kubeadmconstants "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/kubeadm/app/constants"
@@ -122,25 +120,3 @@ func UploadConfiguration(cfg *kubeadmapi.InitConfiguration, client clientset.Int
 		},
 	})
 }
-
-// MutateImageRepository mutates the imageRepository field in the ClusterConfiguration
-// to 'registry.k8s.io' in case it was the legacy default 'k8s.gcr.io'
-// TODO: Remove this in 1.26
-// https://github.com/kubernetes/kubeadm/issues/2671
-func MutateImageRepository(cfg *kubeadmapi.InitConfiguration, client clientset.Interface) error {
-	if cfg.ImageRepository != "k8s.gcr.io" {
-		return nil
-	}
-	cfg.ImageRepository = "registry.k8s.io"
-	// If the client is nil assume that we don't want to mutate the in-cluster config
-	if client == nil {
-		return nil
-	}
-	klog.V(1).Info("updating the ClusterConfiguration.ImageRepository field in the kube-system/kubeadm-config " +
-		"ConfigMap to be 'registry.k8s.io' instead of the legacy default of 'k8s.gcr.io'")
-	if err := UploadConfiguration(cfg, client); err != nil {
-		return errors.Wrap(err, "could not mutate the ClusterConfiguration.ImageRepository field in "+
-			"the kube-system/kubeadm-config ConfigMap")
-	}
-	return nil
-}