diff --git a/man/systemd.exec.xml b/man/systemd.exec.xml
index c898d226a7..0b650fc67a 100644
--- a/man/systemd.exec.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.exec.xml
@@ -124,7 +124,16 @@
         partition table, or a file system within an MBR/MS-DOS or GPT partition table with only a single
         Linux-compatible partition, or a set of file systems within a GPT partition table that follows the <ulink
         url="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/DiscoverablePartitionsSpec/">Discoverable Partitions
-        Specification</ulink>.</para></listitem>
+        Specification</ulink>.</para>
+
+        <para>When <varname>DevicePolicy=</varname> is set to <literal>closed</literal> or <literal>strict</literal>,
+        or set to <literal>auto</literal> and <varname>DeviceAllow=</varname> is set, then this setting adds
+        <filename>/dev/loop-control</filename> with <constant>rw</constant> mode, <literal>block-loop</literal> and
+        <literal>block-blkext</literal> with <constant>rwm</constant> mode to <varname>DeviceAllow=</varname>. See
+        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+        for the details about <varname>DevicePolicy=</varname> or <varname>DeviceAllow=</varname>. Also, see
+        <varname>PrivateDevices=</varname> below, as it may change the setting of <varname>DevicePolicy=</varname>.
+        </para></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
       <varlistentry>
diff --git a/src/core/cgroup.c b/src/core/cgroup.c
index eea30b21ff..0ea1b54040 100644
--- a/src/core/cgroup.c
+++ b/src/core/cgroup.c
@@ -304,6 +304,35 @@ void cgroup_context_dump(CGroupContext *c, FILE* f, const char *prefix) {
         }
 }
 
+int cgroup_add_device_allow(CGroupContext *c, const char *dev, const char *mode) {
+        _cleanup_free_ CGroupDeviceAllow *a = NULL;
+        _cleanup_free_ char *d = NULL;
+
+        assert(c);
+        assert(dev);
+        assert(isempty(mode) || in_charset(mode, "rwm"));
+
+        a = new(CGroupDeviceAllow, 1);
+        if (!a)
+                return -ENOMEM;
+
+        d = strdup(dev);
+        if (!d)
+                return -ENOMEM;
+
+        *a = (CGroupDeviceAllow) {
+                .path = TAKE_PTR(d),
+                .r = isempty(mode) || !!strchr(mode, 'r'),
+                .w = isempty(mode) || !!strchr(mode, 'w'),
+                .m = isempty(mode) || !!strchr(mode, 'm'),
+        };
+
+        LIST_PREPEND(device_allow, c->device_allow, a);
+        TAKE_PTR(a);
+
+        return 0;
+}
+
 static int lookup_block_device(const char *p, dev_t *ret) {
         struct stat st;
         int r;
diff --git a/src/core/cgroup.h b/src/core/cgroup.h
index bda139c30b..2ce87f3b99 100644
--- a/src/core/cgroup.h
+++ b/src/core/cgroup.h
@@ -137,6 +137,8 @@ void cgroup_context_free_io_device_limit(CGroupContext *c, CGroupIODeviceLimit *
 void cgroup_context_free_blockio_device_weight(CGroupContext *c, CGroupBlockIODeviceWeight *w);
 void cgroup_context_free_blockio_device_bandwidth(CGroupContext *c, CGroupBlockIODeviceBandwidth *b);
 
+int cgroup_add_device_allow(CGroupContext *c, const char *dev, const char *mode);
+
 CGroupMask unit_get_own_mask(Unit *u);
 CGroupMask unit_get_delegate_mask(Unit *u);
 CGroupMask unit_get_members_mask(Unit *u);
diff --git a/src/core/load-fragment.c b/src/core/load-fragment.c
index 908d16c9f2..07fcbaacc0 100644
--- a/src/core/load-fragment.c
+++ b/src/core/load-fragment.c
@@ -3212,7 +3212,6 @@ int config_parse_device_allow(
 
         _cleanup_free_ char *path = NULL, *resolved = NULL;
         CGroupContext *c = data;
-        CGroupDeviceAllow *a;
         const char *p = rvalue;
         int r;
 
@@ -3261,17 +3260,7 @@ int config_parse_device_allow(
                 return 0;
         }
 
-        a = new0(CGroupDeviceAllow, 1);
-        if (!a)
-                return log_oom();
-
-        a->path = TAKE_PTR(resolved);
-        a->r = isempty(p) || !!strchr(p, 'r');
-        a->w = isempty(p) || !!strchr(p, 'w');
-        a->m = isempty(p) || !!strchr(p, 'm');
-
-        LIST_PREPEND(device_allow, c->device_allow, a);
-        return 0;
+        return cgroup_add_device_allow(c, resolved, p);
 }
 
 int config_parse_io_device_weight(
diff --git a/src/core/namespace.c b/src/core/namespace.c
index e4930db15c..201192a5a5 100644
--- a/src/core/namespace.c
+++ b/src/core/namespace.c
@@ -1029,24 +1029,21 @@ static int make_read_only(const MountEntry *m, char **blacklist, FILE *proc_self
         return r;
 }
 
-static bool namespace_info_mount_apivfs(const char *root_directory, const NamespaceInfo *ns_info) {
+static bool namespace_info_mount_apivfs(const NamespaceInfo *ns_info) {
         assert(ns_info);
 
         /*
          * ProtectControlGroups= and ProtectKernelTunables= imply MountAPIVFS=,
          * since to protect the API VFS mounts, they need to be around in the
-         * first place... and RootDirectory= or RootImage= need to be set.
+         * first place...
          */
 
-        /* root_directory should point to a mount point */
-        return root_directory &&
-                (ns_info->mount_apivfs ||
-                 ns_info->protect_control_groups ||
-                 ns_info->protect_kernel_tunables);
+        return ns_info->mount_apivfs ||
+                ns_info->protect_control_groups ||
+                ns_info->protect_kernel_tunables;
 }
 
 static size_t namespace_calculate_mounts(
-                const char* root_directory,
                 const NamespaceInfo *ns_info,
                 char** read_write_paths,
                 char** read_only_paths,
@@ -1088,10 +1085,11 @@ static size_t namespace_calculate_mounts(
                 (ns_info->protect_control_groups ? 1 : 0) +
                 (ns_info->protect_kernel_modules ? ELEMENTSOF(protect_kernel_modules_table) : 0) +
                 protect_home_cnt + protect_system_cnt +
-                (namespace_info_mount_apivfs(root_directory, ns_info) ? ELEMENTSOF(apivfs_table) : 0);
+                (namespace_info_mount_apivfs(ns_info) ? ELEMENTSOF(apivfs_table) : 0);
 }
 
 static void normalize_mounts(const char *root_directory, MountEntry *mounts, size_t *n_mounts) {
+        assert(root_directory);
         assert(n_mounts);
         assert(mounts || *n_mounts == 0);
 
@@ -1127,11 +1125,9 @@ int setup_namespace(
         _cleanup_(dissected_image_unrefp) DissectedImage *dissected_image = NULL;
         _cleanup_free_ void *root_hash = NULL;
         MountEntry *m, *mounts = NULL;
-        size_t root_hash_size = 0;
-        const char *root;
-        size_t n_mounts;
-        bool make_slave;
+        size_t n_mounts, root_hash_size = 0;
         bool require_prefix = false;
+        const char *root;
         int r = 0;
 
         assert(ns_info);
@@ -1181,7 +1177,6 @@ int setup_namespace(
         }
 
         n_mounts = namespace_calculate_mounts(
-                        root,
                         ns_info,
                         read_write_paths,
                         read_only_paths,
@@ -1192,9 +1187,6 @@ int setup_namespace(
                         tmp_dir, var_tmp_dir,
                         protect_home, protect_system);
 
-        /* Set mount slave mode */
-        make_slave = root || n_mounts > 0 || ns_info->private_mounts;
-
         if (n_mounts > 0) {
                 m = mounts = (MountEntry *) alloca0(n_mounts * sizeof(MountEntry));
                 r = append_access_mounts(&m, read_write_paths, READWRITE, require_prefix);
@@ -1271,7 +1263,7 @@ int setup_namespace(
                 if (r < 0)
                         goto finish;
 
-                if (namespace_info_mount_apivfs(root, ns_info)) {
+                if (namespace_info_mount_apivfs(ns_info)) {
                         r = append_static_mounts(&m, apivfs_table, ELEMENTSOF(apivfs_table), ns_info->ignore_protect_paths);
                         if (r < 0)
                                 goto finish;
@@ -1284,7 +1276,7 @@ int setup_namespace(
                 if (r < 0)
                         goto finish;
 
-                normalize_mounts(root_directory, mounts, &n_mounts);
+                normalize_mounts(root, mounts, &n_mounts);
         }
 
         if (unshare(CLONE_NEWNS) < 0) {
@@ -1292,13 +1284,11 @@ int setup_namespace(
                 goto finish;
         }
 
-        if (make_slave) {
-                /* Remount / as SLAVE so that nothing now mounted in the namespace
-                   shows up in the parent */
-                if (mount(NULL, "/", NULL, MS_SLAVE|MS_REC, NULL) < 0) {
-                        r = -errno;
-                        goto finish;
-                }
+        /* Remount / as SLAVE so that nothing now mounted in the namespace
+         * shows up in the parent */
+        if (mount(NULL, "/", NULL, MS_SLAVE|MS_REC, NULL) < 0) {
+                r = -errno;
+                goto finish;
         }
 
         if (root_image) {
@@ -1328,7 +1318,7 @@ int setup_namespace(
                         }
                 }
 
-        } else if (root) {
+        } else {
 
                 /* Let's mount the main root directory to the root directory to use */
                 if (mount("/", root, NULL, MS_BIND|MS_REC, NULL) < 0) {
@@ -1385,7 +1375,7 @@ int setup_namespace(
                         if (!again)
                                 break;
 
-                        normalize_mounts(root_directory, mounts, &n_mounts);
+                        normalize_mounts(root, mounts, &n_mounts);
                 }
 
                 /* Create a blacklist we can pass to bind_mount_recursive() */
@@ -1402,12 +1392,10 @@ int setup_namespace(
                 }
         }
 
-        if (root) {
-                /* MS_MOVE does not work on MS_SHARED so the remount MS_SHARED will be done later */
-                r = mount_move_root(root);
-                if (r < 0)
-                        goto finish;
-        }
+        /* MS_MOVE does not work on MS_SHARED so the remount MS_SHARED will be done later */
+        r = mount_move_root(root);
+        if (r < 0)
+                goto finish;
 
         /* Remount / as the desired mode. Note that this will not
          * reestablish propagation from our side to the host, since
diff --git a/src/core/unit.c b/src/core/unit.c
index 23433be31c..17f4ff3ebd 100644
--- a/src/core/unit.c
+++ b/src/core/unit.c
@@ -4143,12 +4143,28 @@ int unit_patch_contexts(Unit *u) {
         }
 
         cc = unit_get_cgroup_context(u);
-        if (cc) {
+        if (cc && ec) {
 
-                if (ec &&
-                    ec->private_devices &&
+                if (ec->private_devices &&
                     cc->device_policy == CGROUP_AUTO)
                         cc->device_policy = CGROUP_CLOSED;
+
+                if (ec->root_image &&
+                    (cc->device_policy != CGROUP_AUTO || cc->device_allow)) {
+
+                        /* When RootImage= is specified, the following devices are touched. */
+                        r = cgroup_add_device_allow(cc, "/dev/loop-control", "rw");
+                        if (r < 0)
+                                return r;
+
+                        r = cgroup_add_device_allow(cc, "block-loop", "rwm");
+                        if (r < 0)
+                                return r;
+
+                        r = cgroup_add_device_allow(cc, "block-blkext", "rwm");
+                        if (r < 0)
+                                return r;
+                }
         }
 
         return 0;