diff --git a/src/basic/namespace-util.c b/src/basic/namespace-util.c
index c103df5c00..a1a1063b72 100644
--- a/src/basic/namespace-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/namespace-util.c
@@ -300,15 +300,16 @@ int namespace_enter_full(
                 /* If we don't have CAP_SYS_ADMIN in our own user namespace, our best bet is to enter the
                  * user namespace first (if we got one) to get CAP_SYS_ADMIN within the child user namespace,
                  * and then hope the other namespaces are owned by the child user namespace. If they aren't,
-                 * we'll just get an EPERM later on when trying to setns() to them. */
+                 * we'll just get an EPERM later on when trying to setns() to them. If there's no namespace
+                 * left to join, there's nothing to need privileges for. */
 
-                if (userns_fd < 0)
+                if (userns_fd >= 0) {
+                        if (setns(userns_fd, CLONE_NEWUSER) < 0)
+                                return -errno;
+                } else if (pidns_fd >= 0 || mntns_fd >= 0 || netns_fd >= 0 || root_fd >= 0)
                         return log_debug_errno(
                                         SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(EPERM),
                                         "Need CAP_SYS_ADMIN or a child user namespace to enter namespaces.");
-
-                if (setns(userns_fd, CLONE_NEWUSER) < 0)
-                        return -errno;
         }
 
         if (pidns_fd >= 0)
diff --git a/src/test/test-namespace-util.c b/src/test/test-namespace-util.c
index b05bbe08b9..de8d6da510 100644
--- a/src/test/test-namespace-util.c
+++ b/src/test/test-namespace-util.c
@@ -54,6 +54,32 @@ TEST(namespace_enter) {
         }
 }
 
+TEST(namespace_enter_nothing) {
+        int r;
+
+        /* With nothing to join, or only namespaces we're already in, entering must succeed without
+         * CAP_SYS_ADMIN, since no setns() call is necessary. */
+        r = ASSERT_OK(pidref_safe_fork(
+                        "test-ns-enter-nothing",
+                        FORK_LOG|FORK_WAIT|FORK_DEATHSIG_SIGKILL,
+                        NULL));
+        if (r == 0) {
+                ASSERT_OK(drop_capability(CAP_SYS_ADMIN));
+
+                ASSERT_OK(namespace_enter(-EBADF, -EBADF, -EBADF, -EBADF, -EBADF));
+
+                _cleanup_close_ int userns_fd = ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(open("/proc/self/ns/user", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC));
+                ASSERT_OK(namespace_enter(-EBADF, -EBADF, -EBADF, userns_fd, -EBADF));
+
+                _cleanup_close_ int mntns_fd = ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(open("/proc/self/ns/mnt", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC));
+                _cleanup_close_ int pidns_fd = ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(open("/proc/self/ns/pid", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC));
+                _cleanup_close_ int netns_fd = ASSERT_OK_ERRNO(open("/proc/self/ns/net", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC));
+                ASSERT_OK(namespace_enter(pidns_fd, mntns_fd, netns_fd, userns_fd, -EBADF));
+
+                _exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
+        }
+}
+
 TEST(namespace_enter_mapped) {
         static const struct {
                 uid_t uid;