diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go
index 8255f22abd0..1fed7e0d665 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/util.go
@@ -36,7 +36,10 @@ func SetKubernetesVersion(cfg *kubeadmapiv1.ClusterConfiguration) {
 
 // CopyFile copy file from src to dest.
 func CopyFile(src, dest string) error {
-	fileInfo, _ := os.Stat(src)
+	fileInfo, err := os.Stat(src)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 	contents, err := os.ReadFile(src)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err