diff --git a/common/utils.cc b/common/utils.cc
index 644493d..50b45fa 100644
--- a/common/utils.cc
+++ b/common/utils.cc
@@ -910,6 +910,25 @@
   return true;
 }
 
+bool GetVpdValue(string key, string* result) {
+  int exit_code = 0;
+  string value, error;
+  vector<string> cmd = {"vpd_get_value", key};
+  if (!chromeos_update_engine::Subprocess::SynchronousExec(
+          cmd, &exit_code, &value, &error) ||
+      exit_code) {
+    LOG(ERROR) << "Failed to get vpd key for " << value
+               << " with exit code: " << exit_code << " and error: " << error;
+    return false;
+  } else if (!error.empty()) {
+    LOG(INFO) << "vpd_get_value succeeded but with following errors: " << error;
+  }
+
+  base::TrimWhitespaceASCII(value, base::TRIM_ALL, &value);
+  *result = value;
+  return true;
+}
+
 bool GetBootId(string* boot_id) {
   TEST_AND_RETURN_FALSE(
       base::ReadFileToString(base::FilePath(kBootIdPath), boot_id));
diff --git a/common/utils.h b/common/utils.h
index ee2dce0..b6880ed 100644
--- a/common/utils.h
+++ b/common/utils.h
@@ -291,6 +291,10 @@
 // reboot. Returns whether it succeeded getting the boot_id.
 bool GetBootId(std::string* boot_id);
 
+// Gets a string value from the vpd for a given key using the `vpd_get_value`
+// shell command. Returns true on success.
+bool GetVpdValue(std::string key, std::string* result);
+
 // Divide |x| by |y| and round up to the nearest integer.
 constexpr uint64_t DivRoundUp(uint64_t x, uint64_t y) {
   return (x + y - 1) / y;