diff --git a/src/shared/discover-image.c b/src/shared/discover-image.c
index c88fa84016..fa0fd1928f 100644
--- a/src/shared/discover-image.c
+++ b/src/shared/discover-image.c
@@ -1687,7 +1687,7 @@ static int get_pool_directory(
         return 0;
 }
 
-static int unprivileged_clone(Image *i, const char *new_path) {
+static int unprivileged_clone(Image *i, const char *new_path, bool read_only) {
         int r;
 
         assert(i);
@@ -1741,7 +1741,15 @@ static int unprivileged_clone(Image *i, const char *new_path) {
         link = sd_varlink_unref(link);
 
         /* Fork off child that moves into userns and does the copying */
-        return copy_tree_at_foreign(tree_fd, target_fd, userns_fd);
+        r = copy_tree_at_foreign(tree_fd, target_fd, userns_fd);
+        if (r < 0)
+                return r;
+
+        /* Match the best-effort immutable bit handling of ordinary directory clones. */
+        if (read_only)
+                (void) chattr_fd(new_fd, FS_IMMUTABLE_FL, FS_IMMUTABLE_FL);
+
+        return 0;
 }
 
 int image_clone(Image *i, const char *new_name, bool read_only, RuntimeScope scope) {
@@ -1784,7 +1792,7 @@ int image_clone(Image *i, const char *new_name, bool read_only, RuntimeScope sco
                         return r;
 
                 if (i->foreign_uid_owned)
-                        r = unprivileged_clone(i, new_path);
+                        r = unprivileged_clone(i, new_path, read_only);
                 else {
                         r = btrfs_subvol_snapshot_at(
                                         AT_FDCWD, i->path,
diff --git a/test/units/TEST-13-NSPAWN.machined.sh b/test/units/TEST-13-NSPAWN.machined.sh
index 2774072699..86e701fe49 100755
--- a/test/units/TEST-13-NSPAWN.machined.sh
+++ b/test/units/TEST-13-NSPAWN.machined.sh
@@ -181,6 +181,24 @@ if lsattr -d /var/lib/machines >/dev/null; then
     [[ "$(machinectl show-image --property=ReadOnly --value clone2)" == yes ]]
     machinectl read-only clone2 no
     [[ "$(machinectl show-image --property=ReadOnly --value clone2)" == no ]]
+
+    # Foreign-UID cloning also needs mountfsd/nsresourced and user namespace delegation.
+    if can_do_rootless_nspawn; then
+        mkdir /var/lib/machines/foreign-source
+        echo "foreign clone contents" >/var/lib/machines/foreign-source/payload
+        chown foreign-0:foreign-0 /var/lib/machines/foreign-source{,/payload}
+        machinectl clone --read-only foreign-source foreign-clone
+        [[ "$(machinectl show-image --property=ReadOnly --value foreign-clone)" == yes ]]
+        cmp /var/lib/machines/foreign-source/payload /var/lib/machines/foreign-clone/payload
+        assert_eq "$(stat -c %u:%g /var/lib/machines/foreign-source)" \
+                  "$(stat -c %u:%g /var/lib/machines/foreign-clone)"
+        assert_eq "$(stat -c %u:%g /var/lib/machines/foreign-source/payload)" \
+                  "$(stat -c %u:%g /var/lib/machines/foreign-clone/payload)"
+        (! touch /var/lib/machines/foreign-clone/new-file)
+        machinectl remove foreign-clone foreign-source
+    else
+        echo "Skipping foreign-UID read-only clone test: rootless nspawn prerequisites not met"
+    fi
 fi
 machinectl remove clone2
 for i in {0..4}; do