diff --git a/fs/namespace.c b/fs/namespace.c
index 437f60e96d40..5a51315c6678 100644
--- a/fs/namespace.c
+++ b/fs/namespace.c
@@ -4472,10 +4472,15 @@ static int do_mount_setattr(struct path *path, struct mount_kattr *kattr)
 	/*
 	 * If this is an attached mount make sure it's located in the callers
 	 * mount namespace. If it's not don't let the caller interact with it.
-	 * If this is a detached mount make sure it has an anonymous mount
-	 * namespace attached to it, i.e. we've created it via OPEN_TREE_CLONE.
+	 *
+	 * If this mount doesn't have a parent it's most often simply a
+	 * detached mount with an anonymous mount namespace. IOW, something
+	 * that's simply not attached yet. But there are apparently also users
+	 * that do change mount properties on the rootfs itself. That obviously
+	 * neither has a parent nor is it a detached mount so we cannot
+	 * unconditionally check for detached mounts.
 	 */
-	if (!(mnt_has_parent(mnt) ? check_mnt(mnt) : is_anon_ns(mnt->mnt_ns)))
+	if ((mnt_has_parent(mnt) || !is_anon_ns(mnt->mnt_ns)) && !check_mnt(mnt))
 		goto out;
 
 	/*