diff --git a/parts/linux/cloud-init/artifacts/cse_install.sh b/parts/linux/cloud-init/artifacts/cse_install.sh
index 8f0bdb2c6ec..271e4734160 100755
--- a/parts/linux/cloud-init/artifacts/cse_install.sh
+++ b/parts/linux/cloud-init/artifacts/cse_install.sh
@@ -385,14 +385,15 @@ downloadCrictl() {
 }
 
 installCrictl() {
+    local crictlVersion=${1}
     CPU_ARCH=$(getCPUArch)
     currentVersion=$(crictl --version 2>/dev/null | sed 's/crictl version //g')
     if [[ "${currentVersion}" != "" ]]; then
-        echo "version ${currentVersion} of crictl already installed. skipping installCrictl of target version ${1%.*}.0"
+        echo "version ${currentVersion} of crictl already installed. skipping installCrictl of target version ${crictlVersion%.*}.0"
     else
         # this is only called during cse. VHDs should have crictl binaries pre-cached so no need to download.
         # if the vhd does not have crictl pre-baked, return early
-        CRICTL_TGZ_TEMP="crictl-v${CRICTL_VERSION}-linux-${CPU_ARCH}.tar.gz"
+        CRICTL_TGZ_TEMP="crictl-v${crictlVersion}-linux-${CPU_ARCH}.tar.gz"
         if [[ ! -f "$CRICTL_DOWNLOAD_DIR/${CRICTL_TGZ_TEMP}" ]]; then
             rm -rf ${CRICTL_DOWNLOAD_DIR}
             echo "pre-cached crictl not found: skipping installCrictl"
diff --git a/vhdbuilder/packer/install-dependencies.sh b/vhdbuilder/packer/install-dependencies.sh
index 062bdf590e6..fa0cb6613c0 100644
--- a/vhdbuilder/packer/install-dependencies.sh
+++ b/vhdbuilder/packer/install-dependencies.sh
@@ -228,10 +228,6 @@ while IFS= read -r p; do
         downloadCrictl "${downloadDir}" "${evaluatedURL}"
         installCrictl "${version}"
         echo "  - crictl version ${version}" >> ${VHD_LOGS_FILEPATH}
-        # other steps are dependent on CRICTL_VERSION and CRICTL_VERSIONS
-        # since we only have 1 entry in CRICTL_VERSIONS, we simply set both to the same value
-        CRICTL_VERSION=${version} 
-        CRICTL_VERSIONS=${version}
       done
       ;;
     "azure-cni")