diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/validation/validation.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/validation/validation.go
index e54416e8b0f..5ef679c5027 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/validation/validation.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/apis/kubeadm/validation/validation.go
@@ -140,7 +140,8 @@ func ValidateArgSelection(cfg *kubeadm.NodeConfiguration, fldPath *field.Path) f
 		allErrs = append(allErrs, field.Invalid(fldPath, "", "DiscoveryTokenCACertHashes cannot be used with DiscoveryFile"))
 	}
 
-	if len(cfg.DiscoveryFile) == 0 && len(cfg.DiscoveryTokenCACertHashes) == 0 && !cfg.DiscoveryTokenUnsafeSkipCAVerification {
+	if len(cfg.DiscoveryFile) == 0 && len(cfg.DiscoveryToken) != 0 &&
+		len(cfg.DiscoveryTokenCACertHashes) == 0 && !cfg.DiscoveryTokenUnsafeSkipCAVerification {
 		allErrs = append(allErrs, field.Invalid(fldPath, "", "using token-based discovery without DiscoveryTokenCACertHashes can be unsafe. set --discovery-token-unsafe-skip-ca-verification to continue"))
 	}