diff --git a/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux.go b/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux.go
index 0cbf578112d..e0bb528f39a 100644
--- a/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux.go
+++ b/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux.go
@@ -941,11 +941,6 @@ func setupUserNamespace(spec *specs.Spec, config *configs.Config) error {
 		}
 	}
 	if path := config.Namespaces.PathOf(configs.NEWUSER); path != "" {
-		// We cannot allow uid or gid mappings to be set if we are also asked
-		// to join a userns.
-		if config.UidMappings != nil || config.GidMappings != nil {
-			return errors.New("user namespaces enabled, but both namespace path and mapping specified -- you may only provide one")
-		}
 		// Cache the current userns mappings in our configuration, so that we
 		// can calculate uid and gid mappings within runc. These mappings are
 		// never used for configuring the container if the path is set.
@@ -953,6 +948,25 @@ func setupUserNamespace(spec *specs.Spec, config *configs.Config) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("failed to cache mappings for userns: %w", err)
 		}
+		// We cannot allow uid or gid mappings to be set if we are also asked
+		// to join a userns.
+		if config.UidMappings != nil || config.GidMappings != nil {
+			// FIXME: It turns out that containerd and CRIO pass both a userns
+			// path and the mappings of the namespace in the same config.json.
+			// Such a configuration is technically not valid, but we used to
+			// require mappings be specified, and thus users worked around our
+			// bug -- so we can't regress it at the moment. But we also don't
+			// want to produce broken behaviour if the mapping doesn't match
+			// the userns. So (for now) we output a warning if the actual
+			// userns mappings match the configuration, otherwise we return an
+			// error.
+			if !userns.IsSameMapping(uidMap, config.UidMappings) ||
+				!userns.IsSameMapping(gidMap, config.GidMappings) {
+				return errors.New("user namespaces enabled, but both namespace path and non-matching mapping specified -- you may only provide one")
+			}
+			logrus.Warnf("config.json has both a userns path to join and a matching userns mapping specified -- you may only provide one. Future versions of runc may return an error with this configuration, please report a bug on <https://github.com/opencontainers/runc> if you see this warning and cannot update your configuration.")
+		}
+
 		config.UidMappings = uidMap
 		config.GidMappings = gidMap
 		logrus.WithFields(logrus.Fields{
diff --git a/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux_test.go b/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux_test.go
index 68e57a08308..f79ea0e3727 100644
--- a/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux_test.go
+++ b/libcontainer/specconv/spec_linux_test.go
@@ -639,8 +639,8 @@ func TestUserNamespaceMappingAndPath(t *testing.T) {
 		Spec: spec,
 	})
 
-	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "user namespaces enabled, but both namespace path and mapping specified") {
-		t.Errorf("user namespace with mapping and namespace path should be forbidden")
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "both namespace path and non-matching mapping specified") {
+		t.Errorf("user namespace with path and non-matching mapping should be forbidden, got error %v", err)
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/libcontainer/userns/userns_maps_linux.go b/libcontainer/userns/userns_maps_linux.go
index d81290de2cb..7a8c2b023b3 100644
--- a/libcontainer/userns/userns_maps_linux.go
+++ b/libcontainer/userns/userns_maps_linux.go
@@ -169,3 +169,18 @@ func GetUserNamespaceMappings(nsPath string) (uidMap, gidMap []configs.IDMap, er
 
 	return uidMap, gidMap, nil
 }
+
+// IsSameMapping returns whether or not the two id mappings are the same. Note
+// that if the order of the mappings is different, or a mapping has been split,
+// the mappings will be considered different.
+func IsSameMapping(a, b []configs.IDMap) bool {
+	if len(a) != len(b) {
+		return false
+	}
+	for idx := range a {
+		if a[idx] != b[idx] {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return true
+}