diff --git a/docs/source/markdown/options/privileged.md b/docs/source/markdown/options/privileged.md
index 608b0ded8f..5cca2ad5e0 100644
--- a/docs/source/markdown/options/privileged.md
+++ b/docs/source/markdown/options/privileged.md
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@ Give extended privileges to this container. The default is **false**.
 By default, Podman containers are unprivileged (**=false**) and cannot, for
 example, modify parts of the operating system. This is because by default a
 container is only allowed limited access to devices. A "privileged" container
-is given the same access to devices as the user launching the container.
+is given the same access to devices as the user launching the container, with
+the exception of virtual consoles (_/dev/tty\d+_) when running in systemd
+mode (**--systemd=always**).
 
 A privileged container turns off the security features that isolate the
 container from the host. Dropped Capabilities, limited devices, read-only mount
diff --git a/docs/source/markdown/options/systemd.md b/docs/source/markdown/options/systemd.md
index 973c063536..9a6e9fcf08 100644
--- a/docs/source/markdown/options/systemd.md
+++ b/docs/source/markdown/options/systemd.md
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ Running the container in systemd mode causes the following changes:
 * Podman sets the default stop signal to **SIGRTMIN+3**.
 * Podman sets **container_uuid** environment variable in the container to the
 first 32 characters of the container id.
+* Podman will not mount virtual consoles (_/dev/tty\d+_) when running with **--privileged**.
 
 This allows systemd to run in a confined container without any modifications.
 
diff --git a/pkg/util/utils_linux.go b/pkg/util/utils_linux.go
index 27ab162e4a..e1e87c6d6d 100644
--- a/pkg/util/utils_linux.go
+++ b/pkg/util/utils_linux.go
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path"
 	"path/filepath"
-	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 
 	"github.com/containers/podman/v4/libpod/define"
@@ -107,7 +106,18 @@ func AddPrivilegedDevices(g *generate.Generator, systemdMode bool) error {
 				Source:      d.Path,
 				Options:     []string{"slave", "nosuid", "noexec", "rw", "rbind"},
 			}
-			if d.Path == "/dev/ptmx" || strings.HasPrefix(d.Path, "/dev/tty") {
+
+			/* The following devices should not be mounted in rootless containers:
+			 *
+			 *   /dev/ptmx: The host-provided /dev/ptmx should not be shared to
+			 *              the rootless containers for security reasons, and
+			 *              the container runtime will create it for us
+			 *              anyway (ln -s /dev/pts/ptmx /dev/ptmx);
+			 *   /dev/tty[0-9]+: Prevent the container from taking over the host's
+			 *                   virtual consoles, even when not in systemd mode
+			 *                   for backwards compatibility.
+			 */
+			if d.Path == "/dev/ptmx" || isVirtualConsoleDevice(d.Path) {
 				continue
 			}
 			if _, found := mounts[d.Path]; found {
@@ -121,6 +131,16 @@ func AddPrivilegedDevices(g *generate.Generator, systemdMode bool) error {
 		}
 	} else {
 		for _, d := range hostDevices {
+			/* Restrict access to the virtual consoles *only* when running
+			 * in systemd mode to improve backwards compatibility. See
+			 * https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/15878.
+			 *
+			 * NOTE: May need revisiting in the future to drop the systemd
+			 * condition if more use cases end up breaking the virtual terminals
+			 * of people who specifically disable the systemd mode. It would
+			 * also provide a more consistent behaviour between rootless and
+			 * rootfull containers.
+			 */
 			if systemdMode && isVirtualConsoleDevice(d.Path) {
 				continue
 			}
diff --git a/test/system/030-run.bats b/test/system/030-run.bats
index bcc78c907f..e6ad64bb0a 100644
--- a/test/system/030-run.bats
+++ b/test/system/030-run.bats
@@ -952,10 +952,29 @@ $IMAGE--c_ok" \
     run_podman stop -t 0 $cid
 }
 
-# 16925: --privileged + --systemd = share non-virtual-terminal TTYs
-@test "podman run --privileged as root with systemd mounts non-vt /dev/tty devices" {
-    skip_if_rootless "this test only makes sense as root"
+@test "podman run --privileged as rootless will not mount /dev/tty\d+" {
+    skip_if_not_rootless "this test as rootless"
 
+    # First, confirm that we _have_ /dev/ttyNN devices on the host.
+    # ('skip' would be nicer in some sense... but could hide a regression.
+    # Fedora, RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, all have /dev/ttyN, so if
+    # this ever triggers, it means a real problem we should know about.)
+    vt_tty_devices_count=$(find /dev -regex '/dev/tty[0-9].*' | wc -w)
+    assert "$vt_tty_devices_count" != "0" \
+           "Expected at least one /dev/ttyN device on host"
+
+    run_podman run --rm -d --privileged $IMAGE ./pause
+    cid="$output"
+
+    run_podman exec $cid sh -c "find /dev -regex '/dev/tty[0-9].*' | wc -w"
+    assert "$output" = "0" \
+           "ls /dev/tty[0-9]: should have no ttyN devices"
+
+    run_podman stop -t 0 $cid
+}
+
+# 16925: --privileged + --systemd = share non-virtual-terminal TTYs (both rootful and rootless)
+@test "podman run --privileged as root with systemd mounts non-vt /dev/tty devices" {
     # First, confirm that we _have_ non-virtual terminal /dev/tty* devices on
     # the host.
     non_vt_tty_devices_count=$(find /dev -regex '/dev/tty[^0-9].*' | wc -w)