diff --git a/hardware.cc b/hardware.cc
index a44edcf..f04c340 100644
--- a/hardware.cc
+++ b/hardware.cc
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 #include "update_engine/hardware.h"
 
+#include <base/file_util.h>
 #include <base/logging.h>
 #include <base/string_util.h>
 #include <rootdev/rootdev.h>
@@ -16,6 +17,9 @@
 
 namespace chromeos_update_engine {
 
+static const char kDevImageMarker[] = "/root/.dev_mode";
+
+
 const string Hardware::BootDevice() {
   char boot_path[PATH_MAX];
   // Resolve the boot device path fully, including dereferencing
@@ -33,6 +37,25 @@
   return boot_path;
 }
 
+bool Hardware::IsOfficialBuild() {
+  return !file_util::PathExists(FilePath(kDevImageMarker));
+}
+
+bool Hardware::IsNormalBootMode() {
+  // 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("devsw_boot?1");
+
+  // Assume dev mode if the dev switch is set to 1 and there was no error
+  // executing crossystem. Assume normal mode otherwise.
+  bool success = Subprocess::SynchronousExec(cmd, &exit_code, NULL);
+  bool dev_mode = success && exit_code == 0;
+  LOG_IF(INFO, dev_mode) << "Booted in dev mode.";
+  return !dev_mode;
+}
+
 static string ReadValueFromCrosSystem(const string& key) {
   int exit_code = 0;
   vector<string> cmd(1, "/usr/bin/crossystem");