diff --git a/arch/Kconfig b/arch/Kconfig
index a801946ed82..6cf29205dfc 100644
--- a/arch/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/Kconfig
@@ -449,6 +449,29 @@ config MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS
 	  This option is enabled when the MPU requires the active (i.e. enabled)
 	  MPU regions to be non-overlapping with each other.
 
+config MPU_GAP_FILLING
+	bool "Force MPU to be filling in background memory regions"
+	depends on MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS
+	depends on USERSPACE
+	help
+	  This Kconfig option instructs the MPU driver to enforce
+	  a full kernel SRAM partitioning, when it programs the
+	  dynamic MPU regions (user thread stack, PRIV stack guard
+	  and application memory domains) during context-switch. We
+	  allow this to be a configurable option, in order to be able
+	  to switch the option off and have an increased number of MPU
+	  regions available for application memory domain programming.
+
+	  Notes:
+	  An increased number of MPU regions should only be required,
+	  when building with USERSPACE support.
+
+	  When the option is switched off, access to memory areas not
+	  covered by explicit MPU regions is restricted to privileged
+	  code on an ARCH-specific basis. Refer to ARCH-specific
+	  documentation for more information on how this option is
+	  used.
+
 menuconfig FLOAT
 	bool "Floating point"
 	depends on CPU_HAS_FPU
diff --git a/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/Kconfig b/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/Kconfig
index f55604edc7e..c0dbae36e6c 100644
--- a/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/Kconfig
@@ -14,10 +14,33 @@ config ARM_MPU
 	select MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS if CPU_HAS_ARM_MPU && (ARMV8_M_BASELINE || ARMV8_M_MAINLINE)
 	help
 	  MCU implements Memory Protection Unit.
-	  Note that NXP MPU as well as ARMv8-M MPU does not require MPU regions
+
+	  Notes:
+	  The ARMv6-M and ARMv8-M MPU architecture requires a power-of-two
+	  alignment of MPU region base address and size.
+
+	  The NXP MPU as well as the ARMv8-M MPU do not require MPU regions
 	  to have power-of-two alignment for base address and region size.
-	  In addition to the above, ARMv8-M MPU requires the active MPU regions
-	  be non-overlapping.
+
+	  The ARMv8-M MPU requires the active MPU regions be non-overlapping.
+	  As a result of this, the ARMv8-M MPU needs to fully partition the
+	  memory map when programming dynamic memory regions (e.g. PRIV stack
+	  guard, user thread stack, and application memory domains), if the
+	  system requires PRIV access policy different from the access policy
+	  of the ARMv8-M background memory map. The allication developer may
+	  enforce full PRIV (kernel) memory partition by enabling the
+	  CONFIG_MPU_GAP_FILLING option.
+	  By not enforcing full partition, MPU may leave part of kernel
+	  SRAM area covered only by the default ARMv8-M memory map. This
+	  is fine for User Mode, since the background ARM map does not
+	  allow nPRIV access at all. However, since the background map
+	  policy allows instruction fetches by privileged code, forcing
+	  this Kconfig option off prevents the system from directly
+	  triggering MemManage exceptions upon accidental attempts to
+	  execute code from SRAM in XIP builds.
+	  Since this does not compromise User Mode, we make the skipping
+	  of full partitioning the default behavior for the ARMv8-M MPU
+	  driver.
 
 config ARM_MPU_REGION_MIN_ALIGN_AND_SIZE
 	int
diff --git a/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/arm_core_mpu_dev.h b/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/arm_core_mpu_dev.h
index d55a06a9366..4b4df5ddc84 100644
--- a/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/arm_core_mpu_dev.h
+++ b/arch/arm/core/cortex_m/mpu/arm_core_mpu_dev.h
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ struct k_thread;
  *
  * @param mpu_regions_num the number of available HW MPU regions.
  */
-#if defined(CONFIG_MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS)
+#if defined(CONFIG_MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS) && \
+	!defined(CONFIG_MPU_SKIP_BACKGROUND_SRAM_FILLING)
 /*
  * For ARM MPU architectures, where the domain partitions cannot be defined
  * on top of the statically configured memory regions, the maximum number of
@@ -53,7 +54,8 @@ struct k_thread;
  * @brief Maximum number of MPU regions required to configure a
  *        memory region for (user) Thread Stack.
  */
-#if defined(CONFIG_MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS)
+#if defined(CONFIG_MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS) && \
+	!defined(CONFIG_MPU_SKIP_BACKGROUND_SRAM_FILLING)
 /* When dynamic regions may not be defined on top of statically
  * allocated memory regions, defining a region for a thread stack
  * requires two additional MPU regions to be configured; one for
@@ -73,7 +75,8 @@ struct k_thread;
  * @brief Maximum number of MPU regions required to configure a
  *        memory region for a (supervisor) Thread Stack Guard.
  */
-#if defined(CONFIG_MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS) \
+#if (defined(CONFIG_MPU_REQUIRES_NON_OVERLAPPING_REGIONS) && \
+		!defined(CONFIG_MPU_SKIP_BACKGROUND_SRAM_FILLING)) \
 	|| defined(CONFIG_CPU_HAS_NXP_MPU)
 /*
  * When dynamic regions may not be defined on top of statically