diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/util.c b/fs/overlayfs/util.c
index e63e0587535f232fa1a8025e1eff7281c87fd675..6569031af3cdd4ca0fed5cf035161a7f1a33248c 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/util.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/util.c
@@ -884,6 +884,13 @@ int ovl_check_metacopy_xattr(struct ovl_fs *ofs, struct dentry *dentry)
 	if (res < 0) {
 		if (res == -ENODATA || res == -EOPNOTSUPP)
 			return 0;
+		/*
+		 * getxattr on user.* may fail with EACCES in case there's no
+		 * read permission on the inode.  Not much we can do, other than
+		 * tell the caller that this is not a metacopy inode.
+		 */
+		if (ofs->config.userxattr && res == -EACCES)
+			return 0;
 		goto out;
 	}