diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go
index 67be2a19d17..4f7a4e7322d 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff.go
@@ -111,7 +111,9 @@ func runDiff(flags *diffFlags, args []string) error {
 	var err error
 	var cfg *kubeadmapi.InitConfiguration
 	if flags.cfgPath != "" {
-		cfg, err = configutil.LoadInitConfigurationFromFile(flags.cfgPath, configutil.LoadOrDefaultConfigurationOptions{})
+		cfg, err = configutil.LoadInitConfigurationFromFile(flags.cfgPath, configutil.LoadOrDefaultConfigurationOptions{
+			SkipCRIDetect: true,
+		})
 	} else {
 		var client *client.Clientset
 		client, err = kubeconfigutil.ClientSetFromFile(flags.kubeConfigPath)
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff_test.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff_test.go
index ca90c05bd82..b9aa325a410 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff_test.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/upgrade/diff_test.go
@@ -49,12 +49,10 @@ func TestRunDiff(t *testing.T) {
 	testUpgradeDiffConfigContents := []byte(fmt.Sprintf(`
 apiVersion: %s
 kind: InitConfiguration
-nodeRegistration:
-  criSocket: %s
 ---
 apiVersion: %[1]s
 kind: ClusterConfiguration
-kubernetesVersion: %[3]s`, kubeadmapiv1.SchemeGroupVersion.String(), constants.UnknownCRISocket, currentVersion))
+kubernetesVersion: %s`, kubeadmapiv1.SchemeGroupVersion.String(), currentVersion))
 	testUpgradeDiffConfig, err := createTestRunDiffFile(testUpgradeDiffConfigContents)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)