diff --git a/utils.cc b/utils.cc
index 9c05a25..bcf34d5 100644
--- a/utils.cc
+++ b/utils.cc
@@ -66,6 +66,23 @@
   return !dev_mode;
 }
 
+string GetHardwareClass() {
+  // TODO(petkov): Convert to a library call once a crossystem library is
+  // available (crosbug.com/13291).
+  int exit_code = 0;
+  vector<string> cmd(1, "/usr/bin/crossystem");
+  cmd.push_back("hwid");
+
+  string hwid;
+  bool success = Subprocess::SynchronousExec(cmd, &exit_code, &hwid);
+  if (success && !exit_code) {
+    TrimWhitespaceASCII(hwid, TRIM_ALL, &hwid);
+    return hwid;
+  }
+  LOG(ERROR) << "Unable to read HWID (" << exit_code << ") " << hwid;
+  return "";
+}
+
 bool WriteFile(const char* path, const char* data, int data_len) {
   DirectFileWriter writer;
   TEST_AND_RETURN_FALSE_ERRNO(0 == writer.Open(path,