diff --git a/docs/systemd.md b/docs/systemd.md
index 1381709d111..c68193fcae1 100644
--- a/docs/systemd.md
+++ b/docs/systemd.md
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ When creating a container, runc requests systemd (over dbus) to create
 a transient unit for the container, and place it into a specified slice.
 
 The name of the unit and the containing slice is derived from the container
-runtime spec in the following way:
+[runtime spec] in the following way:
 
-1. If `Linux.CgroupsPath` is set, it is expected to be in the form
+1. If [Linux.CgroupsPath] is set, it is expected to be in the form
    `[slice]:[prefix]:[name]`.
 
    Here `slice` is a systemd slice under which the container is placed.
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ runtime spec in the following way:
    is `<prefix>-<name>.scope`, unless `name` has `.slice` suffix, in
    which case `prefix` is ignored and the `name` is used as is.
 
-2. If `Linux.CgroupsPath` is not set or empty, it works the same way as if it
+2. If [Linux.CgroupsPath] is not set or empty, it works the same way as if it
    would be set to `:runc:<container-id>`. See the description above to see
    what it transforms to.
 
@@ -102,7 +102,44 @@ The following tables summarize which properties are translated.
 | unified.pids.max        | TasksMax              |                     |
 
 For documentation on systemd unit resource properties, see
-`systemd.resource-control(5)` man page.
+[systemd.resource-control(5)] man page.
+
+### Device access rules
+
+[Device access rules] from the [runtime spec] are translated to systemd properties
+(`DevicePolicy` and `DeviceAllow`). Not all configurations are supported; in
+particular, the following can not be translated:
+ - blacklist-style rulesets;
+ - wildcard-major rules (meaning "all devices with any major number and the
+   given minor number").
+
+NOTE that systemd v240 or later is highly recommended, since older versions
+have limited ways to interpret `DeviceAllow` rules. When using systemd older
+than v240, the following limitations exist:
+
+ - it is not possible to add a rule for a device that does not have an
+   equivalent `/dev/{char,block}/<MAJOR>:<minor>` file on the host
+   (for example, this is the case for NVidia devices);
+ - adding a wildcard-minor rule (meaning "devices with the given major number
+   any any minor number") results in having a set of individual rules for
+   existing devices only, meaning that any devices that will appear after the
+   container start won't be accessible.
+
+How the device access rules are applied depends on cgroup version:
+
+#### cgroup v1
+
+The rules are applied by systemd to the cgroup device controller
+(`device.{allow,deny}` files), then runc overwrites those rules with its own
+set, which might be more complete due to older systemd limitations described
+above. If some spec rules can not be translated to systemd properties, a minor
+warning (which can only be seen when `runc` is run with `--debug` flag is used)
+is emitted.
+
+#### cgroup v2
+
+The rules are only applied by systemd. If some spec rules can not be translated
+to systemd properties (see above), a warning is printed by runc.
 
 ### Auxiliary properties
 
@@ -129,3 +166,8 @@ The values must be in the gvariant text format, as described in
 
 To find out which type systemd expects for a particular parameter, please
 consult systemd sources.
+
+[runtime spec]: https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/main/spec.md
+[Linux.CgroupsPath]: https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/main/config-linux.md#cgroups-path
+[systemd.resource-control(5)]: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.resource-control.html
+[Device access rules]: https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/main/config-linux.md#allowed-device-list
diff --git a/libcontainer/cgroups/devices/systemd.go b/libcontainer/cgroups/devices/systemd.go
index e1251c5ffb1..84c1b7d53ae 100644
--- a/libcontainer/cgroups/devices/systemd.go
+++ b/libcontainer/cgroups/devices/systemd.go
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import (
 
 // systemdProperties takes the configured device rules and generates a
 // corresponding set of systemd properties to configure the devices correctly.
-func systemdProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property, error) {
+func systemdProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer int, cgroupVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property, error) {
 	if r.SkipDevices {
 		return nil, nil
 	}
@@ -56,6 +56,19 @@ func systemdProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property,
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to get simplified rules for systemd: %w", err)
 	}
+	logRuleError := func(rule *devices.Rule, msg string) {
+		switch cgroupVer {
+		case 1:
+			// For cgroup v1, runc reapplies all the device rules later,
+			// in fsManager.Apply, so it's a temporary issue.
+			logrus.Debugf("temporary ignoring device rule %+v: %s", rule, msg)
+		case 2:
+			// For cgroup v2, if we can't translate the rule to systemd lingo,
+			// there's nothing we can do. For backward compatibility, we do not
+			// error out, but merely print a big fat warning.
+			logrus.Warnf("unable to apply device rule %+v: %s", rule, msg)
+		}
+	}
 	var deviceAllowList []deviceAllowEntry
 	for _, rule := range finalRules {
 		if !rule.Allow {
@@ -96,11 +109,20 @@ func systemdProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property,
 		// The only type of rule we can't handle is wildcard-major rules, and
 		// so we'll give a warning in that case (note that the fallback code
 		// will insert any rules systemd couldn't handle). What amazing fun.
+		//
+		// The properties generated here are applied by systemd. In case of
+		// cgroup v1 ("device.{allow,deny}" files), runc when overwrites the
+		// systemd rules, so the correct rules are in effect (except for the
+		// case when systemd is restarted and our rules gets overwritten, but
+		// there is nothing we can do here).
+		//
+		// For cgroup v2, we only use systemd rules, so we log warnings when
+		// some rules can't be translated.
 
 		if rule.Major == devices.Wildcard {
 			// "_ *:n _" rules aren't supported by systemd.
 			if rule.Minor != devices.Wildcard {
-				logrus.Warnf("systemd doesn't support '*:n' device rules -- temporarily ignoring rule: %v", *rule)
+				logRuleError(rule, "systemd does not support wildcard-major device rules")
 				continue
 			}
 
@@ -119,14 +141,16 @@ func systemdProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property,
 				}
 				entry.Path = prefix + strconv.FormatInt(rule.Major, 10)
 			} else {
-				// For older systemd, "_ n:* _" rules require a device group from /proc/devices.
+				// For older systemd, {block,char}-NAME syntax is used,
+				// where NAME is a device group from /proc/devices
+				// corresponding to the major number.
 				group, err := findDeviceGroup(rule.Type, rule.Major)
 				if err != nil {
 					return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to find device '%v/%d': %w", rule.Type, rule.Major, err)
 				}
 				if group == "" {
 					// Couldn't find a group.
-					logrus.Warnf("could not find device group for '%v/%d' in /proc/devices -- temporarily ignoring rule: %v", rule.Type, rule.Major, *rule)
+					logRuleError(rule, "systemd older than v240 does not support wildcard-minor rules for devices not listed in /proc/devices")
 					continue
 				}
 				entry.Path = group
@@ -141,12 +165,9 @@ func systemdProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property,
 			}
 			if sdVer < 240 {
 				// Old systemd versions use stat(2) on path to find out device major:minor
-				// numbers and type. If the path doesn't exist, it will not add the rule,
-				// emitting a warning instead.
-				// Since all of this logic is best-effort anyway (we manually set these
-				// rules separately to systemd) we can safely skip entries that don't
-				// have a corresponding path.
+				// numbers and type. If the path doesn't exist, it will not add the rule.
 				if _, err := os.Stat(entry.Path); err != nil {
+					logRuleError(rule, "systemd older than v240 does not support device rules for non-existing device: "+err.Error())
 					continue
 				}
 			}
diff --git a/libcontainer/cgroups/fs2/fs2.go b/libcontainer/cgroups/fs2/fs2.go
index 74dfcfdafcd..7e2c80cef1a 100644
--- a/libcontainer/cgroups/fs2/fs2.go
+++ b/libcontainer/cgroups/fs2/fs2.go
@@ -184,14 +184,18 @@ func (m *Manager) Set(r *cgroups.Resources) error {
 	if err := setCPU(m.dirPath, r); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	// devices (since kernel 4.15, pseudo-controller)
-	//
-	// When rootless is true, errors from the device subsystem are ignored because it is really not expected to work.
-	// However, errors from other subsystems are not ignored.
-	// see @test "runc create (rootless + limits + no cgrouppath + no permission) fails with informative error"
-	if err := setDevices(m.dirPath, r); err != nil {
-		if !m.config.Rootless || errors.Is(err, cgroups.ErrDevicesUnsupported) {
-			return err
+	// When systemd is used, we do not add a second BPF_CGROUP_DEVICE program,
+	// relying on systemd to set all the device rules (see systemdProperties
+	// in libcontainer/cgroups/devices/systemd.go).
+	if !m.config.Systemd {
+		// Devices (since kernel 4.15, pseudo-controller).
+		if err := setDevices(m.dirPath, r); err != nil {
+			// When rootless is true, errors from the device subsystem are ignored because it is
+			// really not expected to work. However, errors from other subsystems are not ignored.
+			// See @test "runc create (rootless + limits + no cgrouppath + no permission) fails with informative error".
+			if !m.config.Rootless || errors.Is(err, cgroups.ErrDevicesUnsupported) {
+				return err
+			}
 		}
 	}
 	// cpuset (since kernel 5.0)
diff --git a/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/common.go b/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/common.go
index bcd1f99eb0c..74f35146937 100644
--- a/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/common.go
+++ b/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/common.go
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ var (
 	// [github.com/opencontainers/runc/libcontainer/cgroups/devices]
 	// package is imported, it is set to nil, so cgroup managers can't
 	// configure devices.
-	GenerateDeviceProps func(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property, error)
+	GenerateDeviceProps func(r *cgroups.Resources, sdVer, cgroupVer int) ([]systemdDbus.Property, error)
 )
 
 // NOTE: This function comes from package github.com/coreos/go-systemd/util
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ func addCpuset(cm *dbusConnManager, props *[]systemdDbus.Property, cpus, mems st
 
 // generateDeviceProperties takes the configured device rules and generates a
 // corresponding set of systemd properties to configure the devices correctly.
-func generateDeviceProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, cm *dbusConnManager) ([]systemdDbus.Property, error) {
+func generateDeviceProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, cm *dbusConnManager, cgroupVersion int) ([]systemdDbus.Property, error) {
 	if GenerateDeviceProps == nil {
 		if len(r.Devices) > 0 {
 			return nil, cgroups.ErrDevicesUnsupported
@@ -358,5 +358,5 @@ func generateDeviceProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, cm *dbusConnManager) ([]syst
 		return nil, nil
 	}
 
-	return GenerateDeviceProps(r, systemdVersion(cm))
+	return GenerateDeviceProps(r, systemdVersion(cm), cgroupVersion)
 }
diff --git a/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v1.go b/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v1.go
index cee76eb35cf..abb9c123bd9 100644
--- a/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v1.go
+++ b/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v1.go
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ var legacySubsystems = []subsystem{
 func genV1ResourcesProperties(r *cgroups.Resources, cm *dbusConnManager) ([]systemdDbus.Property, error) {
 	var properties []systemdDbus.Property
 
-	deviceProperties, err := generateDeviceProperties(r, cm)
+	deviceProperties, err := generateDeviceProperties(r, cm, 1)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v2.go b/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v2.go
index 7b16f528b9c..bc7e026a74e 100644
--- a/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v2.go
+++ b/libcontainer/cgroups/systemd/v2.go
@@ -208,12 +208,7 @@ func genV2ResourcesProperties(dirPath string, r *cgroups.Resources, cm *dbusConn
 
 	var properties []systemdDbus.Property
 
-	// NOTE: This is of questionable correctness because we insert our own
-	//       devices eBPF program later. Two programs with identical rules
-	//       aren't the end of the world, but it is a bit concerning. However
-	//       it's unclear if systemd removes all eBPF programs attached when
-	//       doing SetUnitProperties...
-	deviceProperties, err := generateDeviceProperties(r, cm)
+	deviceProperties, err := generateDeviceProperties(r, cm, 2)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}