diff --git a/internal/pathrs/mkdirall.go b/internal/pathrs/mkdirall.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3a896f484
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/pathrs/mkdirall.go
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2024-2025 Aleksa Sarai <cyphar@cyphar.com>
+ * Copyright (C) 2024-2025 SUSE LLC
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package pathrs
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+)
+
+// MkdirAllParentInRoot is like [MkdirAllInRoot] except that it only creates
+// the parent directory of the target path, returning the trailing component so
+// the caller has more flexibility around constructing the final inode.
+//
+// Callers need to be very careful operating on the trailing path, as trivial
+// mistakes like following symlinks can cause security bugs. Most people
+// should probably just use [MkdirAllInRoot] or [CreateInRoot].
+func MkdirAllParentInRoot(root, unsafePath string, mode os.FileMode) (*os.File, string, error) {
+	// MkdirAllInRoot also does hallucinateUnsafePath, but we need to do it
+	// here first because when we split unsafePath into (dir, file) components
+	// we want to be doing so with the hallucinated path (so that trailing
+	// dangling symlinks are treated correctly).
+	unsafePath, err := hallucinateUnsafePath(root, unsafePath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("failed to construct hallucinated target path: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	dirPath, filename := filepath.Split(unsafePath)
+	if filepath.Join("/", filename) == "/" {
+		return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("create parent dir in root subpath %q has bad trailing component %q", unsafePath, filename)
+	}
+
+	dirFd, err := MkdirAllInRoot(root, dirPath, mode)
+	return dirFd, filename, err
+}
diff --git a/internal/pathrs/root_pathrslite.go b/internal/pathrs/root_pathrslite.go
index 0d9148419..51db77440 100644
--- a/internal/pathrs/root_pathrslite.go
+++ b/internal/pathrs/root_pathrslite.go
@@ -19,9 +19,7 @@
 package pathrs
 
 import (
-	"fmt"
 	"os"
-	"path/filepath"
 
 	"github.com/cyphar/filepath-securejoin/pathrs-lite"
 	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
@@ -50,17 +48,7 @@ func OpenInRoot(root, subpath string, flags int) (*os.File, error) {
 // include it in the passed flags. The fileMode argument uses unix.* mode bits,
 // *not* os.FileMode.
 func CreateInRoot(root, subpath string, flags int, fileMode uint32) (*os.File, error) {
-	subpath, err := hallucinateUnsafePath(root, subpath)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to construct hallucinated target path: %w", err)
-	}
-
-	dir, filename := filepath.Split(subpath)
-	if filepath.Join("/", filename) == "/" {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("create in root subpath %q has bad trailing component %q", subpath, filename)
-	}
-
-	dirFd, err := MkdirAllInRoot(root, dir, 0o755)
+	dirFd, filename, err := MkdirAllParentInRoot(root, subpath, 0o755)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/libcontainer/rootfs_linux.go b/libcontainer/rootfs_linux.go
index 16eccd256..040ef3f60 100644
--- a/libcontainer/rootfs_linux.go
+++ b/libcontainer/rootfs_linux.go
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ import (
 	"syscall"
 	"time"
 
-	securejoin "github.com/cyphar/filepath-securejoin"
 	"github.com/cyphar/filepath-securejoin/pathrs-lite/procfs"
 	"github.com/moby/sys/mountinfo"
 	"github.com/moby/sys/userns"
@@ -506,8 +505,6 @@ func statfsToMountFlags(st unix.Statfs_t) int {
 	return flags
 }
 
-var errRootfsToFile = errors.New("config tries to change rootfs to file")
-
 func (m *mountEntry) createOpenMountpoint(rootfs string) (Err error) {
 	unsafePath := pathrs.LexicallyStripRoot(rootfs, m.Destination)
 	dstFile, err := pathrs.OpenInRoot(rootfs, unsafePath, unix.O_PATH)
@@ -974,15 +971,7 @@ func createDeviceNode(rootfs string, node *devices.Device, bind bool) error {
 		// The node only exists for cgroup reasons, ignore it here.
 		return nil
 	}
-	destPath, err := securejoin.SecureJoin(rootfs, node.Path)
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-	if destPath == rootfs {
-		return fmt.Errorf("%w: mknod over rootfs", errRootfsToFile)
-	}
-	destDirPath, destName := filepath.Split(destPath)
-	destDir, err := pathrs.MkdirAllInRoot(rootfs, destDirPath, 0o755)
+	destDir, destName, err := pathrs.MkdirAllParentInRoot(rootfs, node.Path, 0o755)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("mkdir parent of device inode %q: %w", node.Path, err)
 	}