diff --git a/fs/open.c b/fs/open.c
index 6cf516156111..5ba3fca9886b 100644
--- a/fs/open.c
+++ b/fs/open.c
@@ -363,6 +363,25 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE3(faccessat, int, dfd, const char __user *, filename, int, mode)
 				override_cred->cap_permitted;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * The new set of credentials can *only* be used in
+	 * task-synchronous circumstances, and does not need
+	 * RCU freeing, unless somebody then takes a separate
+	 * reference to it.
+	 *
+	 * NOTE! This is _only_ true because this credential
+	 * is used purely for override_creds() that installs
+	 * it as the subjective cred. Other threads will be
+	 * accessing ->real_cred, not the subjective cred.
+	 *
+	 * If somebody _does_ make a copy of this (using the
+	 * 'get_current_cred()' function), that will clear the
+	 * non_rcu field, because now that other user may be
+	 * expecting RCU freeing. But normal thread-synchronous
+	 * cred accesses will keep things non-RCY.
+	 */
+	override_cred->non_rcu = 1;
+
 	old_cred = override_creds(override_cred);
 retry:
 	res = user_path_at(dfd, filename, lookup_flags, &path);
diff --git a/include/linux/cred.h b/include/linux/cred.h
index 9e120c92551b..d2db1da3036c 100644
--- a/include/linux/cred.h
+++ b/include/linux/cred.h
@@ -153,7 +153,11 @@ struct cred {
 	struct user_struct *user;	/* real user ID subscription */
 	struct user_namespace *user_ns; /* user_ns the caps and keyrings are relative to. */
 	struct group_info *group_info;	/* supplementary groups for euid/fsgid */
-	struct rcu_head	rcu;		/* RCU deletion hook */
+	/* RCU deletion */
+	union {
+		int non_rcu;			/* Can we skip RCU deletion? */
+		struct rcu_head	rcu;		/* RCU deletion hook */
+	};
 };
 
 extern void __put_cred(struct cred *);
@@ -251,6 +255,7 @@ static inline const struct cred *get_cred(const struct cred *cred)
 {
 	struct cred *nonconst_cred = (struct cred *) cred;
 	validate_creds(cred);
+	nonconst_cred->non_rcu = 0;
 	return get_new_cred(nonconst_cred);
 }
 
diff --git a/kernel/cred.c b/kernel/cred.c
index 098af0bc0b7e..a2e06b05a90c 100644
--- a/kernel/cred.c
+++ b/kernel/cred.c
@@ -146,7 +146,10 @@ void __put_cred(struct cred *cred)
 	BUG_ON(cred == current->cred);
 	BUG_ON(cred == current->real_cred);
 
-	call_rcu(&cred->rcu, put_cred_rcu);
+	if (cred->non_rcu)
+		put_cred_rcu(&cred->rcu);
+	else
+		call_rcu(&cred->rcu, put_cred_rcu);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(__put_cred);
 
@@ -257,6 +260,7 @@ struct cred *prepare_creds(void)
 	old = task->cred;
 	memcpy(new, old, sizeof(struct cred));
 
+	new->non_rcu = 0;
 	atomic_set(&new->usage, 1);
 	set_cred_subscribers(new, 0);
 	get_group_info(new->group_info);
@@ -536,7 +540,19 @@ const struct cred *override_creds(const struct cred *new)
 
 	validate_creds(old);
 	validate_creds(new);
-	get_cred(new);
+
+	/*
+	 * NOTE! This uses 'get_new_cred()' rather than 'get_cred()'.
+	 *
+	 * That means that we do not clear the 'non_rcu' flag, since
+	 * we are only installing the cred into the thread-synchronous
+	 * '->cred' pointer, not the '->real_cred' pointer that is
+	 * visible to other threads under RCU.
+	 *
+	 * Also note that we did validate_creds() manually, not depending
+	 * on the validation in 'get_cred()'.
+	 */
+	get_new_cred((struct cred *)new);
 	alter_cred_subscribers(new, 1);
 	rcu_assign_pointer(current->cred, new);
 	alter_cred_subscribers(old, -1);
@@ -619,6 +635,7 @@ struct cred *prepare_kernel_cred(struct task_struct *daemon)
 	validate_creds(old);
 
 	*new = *old;
+	new->non_rcu = 0;
 	atomic_set(&new->usage, 1);
 	set_cred_subscribers(new, 0);
 	get_uid(new->user);