diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
index 1c44d2dbb95..c269d3c2356 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/v1alpha1/defaults.go
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ import (
 const (
 	DefaultServiceDNSDomain  = "cluster.local"
 	DefaultServicesSubnet    = "10.96.0.0/12"
-	DefaultKubernetesVersion = "v1.4.4"
+	DefaultKubernetesVersion = "stable"
 	DefaultAPIBindPort       = 6443
 	DefaultDiscoveryBindPort = 9898
 )
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go
index 6107f589427..8e0f053e5f7 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/init.go
@@ -193,6 +193,14 @@ func NewInit(cfgPath string, cfg *kubeadmapi.MasterConfiguration, skipPreFlight
 		fmt.Println("Skipping pre-flight checks")
 	}
 
+	// validate version argument
+	ver, err := kubeadmutil.KubernetesReleaseVersion(cfg.KubernetesVersion)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	cfg.KubernetesVersion = ver
+	fmt.Println("Using Kubernetes version:", ver)
+
 	// TODO(phase1+) create a custom flag
 	if cfg.CloudProvider != "" {
 		if cloudprovider.IsCloudProvider(cfg.CloudProvider) {
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
index 26711473cce..2921fb26f6d 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/BUILD
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ go_library(
         "error.go",
         "kubeconfig.go",
         "tokens.go",
+        "version.go",
     ],
     tags = ["automanaged"],
     deps = [
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..86946024bd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/util/version.go
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2016 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 util
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"net/http"
+	"regexp"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+var (
+	kubeReleaseBucketURL  = "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release"
+	kubeReleaseRegex      = regexp.MustCompile(`^v(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)([-0-9a-zA-Z_\.+]*)?$`)
+	kubeReleaseLabelRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`^[[:lower:]]+(-[-\w_\.]+)?$`)
+)
+
+// KubernetesReleaseVersion is helper function that can fetch
+// available version information from release servers based on
+// label names, like "stable" or "latest".
+//
+// If argument is already semantic version string, it
+// will return same string.
+//
+// In case of labels, it tries to fetch from release
+// servers and then return actual semantic version.
+//
+// Available names on release servers:
+//  stable      (latest stable release)
+//  stable-1    (latest stable release in 1.x)
+//  stable-1.0  (and similarly 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ...)
+//  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, ...)
+func KubernetesReleaseVersion(version string) (string, error) {
+	if kubeReleaseRegex.MatchString(version) {
+		return version, nil
+	} else if kubeReleaseLabelRegex.MatchString(version) {
+		url := fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s.txt", kubeReleaseBucketURL, version)
+		resp, err := http.Get(url)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: unable to get URL %q: %s", url, err.Error())
+		}
+		defer resp.Body.Close()
+		if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: unable to fetch release information. URL: %q Status: %v", url, resp.Status)
+		}
+		body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: unable to read content of URL %q: %s", url, err.Error())
+		}
+		// Re-validate received version and return.
+		return KubernetesReleaseVersion(strings.Trim(string(body), " \t\n"))
+	}
+	return "", fmt.Errorf("Error: version %q doesn't match patterns for neither semantic version nor labels (stable, latest, ...)", version)
+}