diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
index 11ea1d1b8b9..fedc75a8c8d 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
@@ -52,4 +52,8 @@ func SetDefaults_MasterConfiguration(obj *MasterConfiguration) {
 	if obj.Networking.DNSDomain == "" {
 		obj.Networking.DNSDomain = DefaultServiceDNSDomain
 	}
+
+	if obj.Discovery.Token == nil && obj.Discovery.File == nil && obj.Discovery.HTTPS == nil {
+		obj.Discovery.Token = &TokenDiscovery{}
+	}
 }
diff --git a/pkg/api/testing/fuzzer.go b/pkg/api/testing/fuzzer.go
index 913d2bf026e..6c993c4a26f 100644
--- a/pkg/api/testing/fuzzer.go
+++ b/pkg/api/testing/fuzzer.go
@@ -550,6 +550,7 @@ func FuzzerFor(t *testing.T, version schema.GroupVersion, src rand.Source) *fuzz
 			obj.API.Port = 20
 			obj.Networking.ServiceSubnet = "foo"
 			obj.Networking.DNSDomain = "foo"
+			obj.Discovery.Token = &kubeadm.TokenDiscovery{}
 		},
 		func(s *policy.PodDisruptionBudgetStatus, c fuzz.Continue) {
 			c.FuzzNoCustom(s) // fuzz self without calling this function again