diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 5d9ac748..f0ca1b1f 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 ---
 repos:
   - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
-    rev: stable
+    rev: 23.9.1
     hooks:
       - id: black
-  - repo: https://gitlab.com/pycqa/flake8
-    rev: 3.7.9
+  - repo: https://github.com/pycqa/flake8
+    rev: 6.1.0
     hooks:
       - id: flake8
         additional_dependencies: [flake8-bugbear]
diff --git a/kube_hunter/modules/discovery/kubectl.py b/kube_hunter/modules/discovery/kubectl.py
index 38e52e07..f0a55e81 100644
--- a/kube_hunter/modules/discovery/kubectl.py
+++ b/kube_hunter/modules/discovery/kubectl.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import json
 import logging
 import subprocess
 
@@ -32,14 +33,15 @@ def get_kubectl_binary_version(self):
         version = None
         try:
             # kubectl version --client does not make any connection to the cluster/internet whatsoever.
-            version_info = subprocess.check_output("kubectl version --client", stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
-            if b"GitVersion" in version_info:
-                # extracting version from kubectl output
-                version_info = version_info.decode()
-                start = version_info.find("GitVersion")
-                version = version_info[start + len("GitVersion':\"") : version_info.find('",', start)]
+            version_info = subprocess.check_output(
+                ["kubectl", "version", "--client", "-o", "json"], stderr=subprocess.STDOUT
+            )
+            version_info = json.loads(version_info)
+            version = version_info["clientVersion"]["gitVersion"]
         except Exception:
             logger.debug("Could not find kubectl client")
+        else:
+            logger.debug(f"Found kubectl client: {version}")
         return version
 
     def execute(self):
diff --git a/tests/discovery/test_kubectl.py b/tests/discovery/test_kubectl.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..03579bc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/discovery/test_kubectl.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# flake8: noqa: E402
+
+from kube_hunter.conf import Config, set_config
+
+set_config(Config())
+
+from kube_hunter.modules.discovery.kubectl import KubectlClientDiscovery
+
+
+def test_kubectl_discovery():
+    discovery = KubectlClientDiscovery(None)
+    version = discovery.get_kubectl_binary_version()
+    assert version is not None