The "userxattr" option is needed for mounting overlayfs inside a user namespace with kernel >= 5.11.
The "userxattr" option is NOT needed for the initial user namespace (aka "the host").
Also, Ubuntu (since circa 2015) and Debian (since 10) with kernel < 5.11 can mount the overlayfs in a user namespace without the "userxattr" option.
The corresponding kernel commit: 2d2f2d7322ff43e0fe92bf8cccdc0b09449bf2e1
> **ovl: user xattr**
>
> Optionally allow using "user.overlay." namespace instead of "trusted.overlay."
> ...
> Disable redirect_dir and metacopy options, because these would allow privilege escalation through direct manipulation of the
> "user.overlay.redirect" or "user.overlay.metacopy" xattrs.
Fix issue 42055
Related to containerd/containerd PR 5076
Signed-off-by: Akihiro Suda <akihiro.suda.cz@hco.ntt.co.jp>
Akihiro Suda