diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
index 6ed298d2fda..114a57cb3de 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ const (
 var (
 	kubeReleaseBucketURL  = "https://dl.k8s.io"
 	kubeReleaseRegex      = regexp.MustCompile(`^v?(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)([-0-9a-zA-Z_\.+]*)?$`)
-	kubeReleaseLabelRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`^[[:lower:]]+(-[-\w_\.]+)?$`)
+	kubeReleaseLabelRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`(k8s-master|((latest|stable)+(-[1-9](\.[1-9]([0-9])?)?)?))\z`)
 	kubeBucketPrefixes    = regexp.MustCompile(`^((release|ci|ci-cross)/)?([-\w_\.+]+)$`)
 )
 
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ var (
 //  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, ...)
+//  k8s-master  (latest cross build)
 func KubernetesReleaseVersion(version string) (string, error) {
 	return kubernetesReleaseVersion(version, fetchFromURL)
 }
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version_test.go
index 7029d1d802b..30dad9d0ee9 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version_test.go
@@ -116,14 +116,13 @@ func TestVersionFromNetwork(t *testing.T) {
 	currentVersion := normalizedBuildVersion(constants.CurrentKubernetesVersion.String())
 
 	cases := map[string]T{
-		"stable":     {"stable-1", "v1.4.6", false, false}, // recursive pointer to stable-1
-		"stable-1":   {"v1.4.6", "v1.4.6", false, false},
-		"stable-1.3": {"v1.3.10", "v1.3.10", false, false},
-		"latest":     {"v1.6.0-alpha.0", "v1.6.0-alpha.0", false, false},
-		"latest-1.3": {"v1.3.11-beta.0", "v1.3.11-beta.0", false, false},
-		"empty":      {"", currentVersion, true, false},
-		"garbage":    {"<?xml version='1.0'?><Error><Code>NoSuchKey</Code><Message>The specified key does not exist.</Message></Error>", currentVersion, true, false},
-		"unknown":    {"The requested URL was not found on this server.", currentVersion, true, false},
+		"stable":          {"stable-1", "v1.4.6", false, false}, // recursive pointer to stable-1
+		"stable-1":        {"v1.4.6", "v1.4.6", false, false},
+		"stable-1.3":      {"v1.3.10", "v1.3.10", false, false},
+		"latest":          {"v1.6.0-alpha.0", "v1.6.0-alpha.0", false, false},
+		"latest-1.3":      {"v1.3.11-beta.0", "v1.3.11-beta.0", false, false},
+		"latest-1.5":      {"", currentVersion, true, false}, // fallback to currentVersion on fetcher error
+		"invalid-version": {"", "", false, true},             // invalid version cannot be parsed
 	}
 
 	for k, v := range cases {
@@ -195,11 +194,10 @@ func TestSplitVersion(t *testing.T) {
 		{"v1.8.0-alpha.2.1231+afabd012389d53a", "https://dl.k8s.io/release", "v1.8.0-alpha.2.1231+afabd012389d53a", true},
 		{"release/v1.7.0", "https://dl.k8s.io/release", "v1.7.0", true},
 		{"release/latest-1.7", "https://dl.k8s.io/release", "latest-1.7", true},
-		// CI builds area, lookup actual builds at ci-cross/*.txt
+		// CI builds area
 		{"ci/latest", "https://dl.k8s.io/ci", "latest", true},
-		{"ci-cross/latest", "https://dl.k8s.io/ci-cross", "latest", true},
+		{"ci/k8s-master", "https://dl.k8s.io/ci", "k8s-master", true},
 		{"ci/latest-1.7", "https://dl.k8s.io/ci", "latest-1.7", true},
-		{"ci-cross/latest-1.7", "https://dl.k8s.io/ci-cross", "latest-1.7", true},
 		// unknown label in default (release) area: splitVersion validate only areas.
 		{"unknown-1", "https://dl.k8s.io/release", "unknown-1", true},
 		// unknown area, not valid input.
@@ -238,9 +236,8 @@ func TestKubernetesIsCIVersion(t *testing.T) {
 		{"release/v1.0.0", false},
 		// CI builds
 		{"ci/latest-1", true},
-		{"ci-cross/latest", true},
+		{"ci/k8s-master", true},
 		{"ci/v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", true},
-		{"ci-cross/v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", true},
 	}
 
 	for _, tc := range cases {
@@ -269,9 +266,7 @@ func TestCIBuildVersion(t *testing.T) {
 		{"release/0invalid", "", false},
 		// CI or custom builds
 		{"ci/v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", "v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", true},
-		{"ci-cross/v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", "v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", true},
 		{"ci/1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", "v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", true},
-		{"ci-cross/1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", "v1.9.0-alpha.1.123+acbcbfd53bfa0a", true},
 		{"ci/0invalid", "", false},
 	}