diff --git a/utils.cc b/utils.cc
index 2baa087..cf7913c 100644
--- a/utils.cc
+++ b/utils.cc
@@ -85,6 +85,9 @@
 // in GetFileFormat.
 const int kGetFileFormatMaxHeaderSize = 32;
 
+// The path to the kernel's boot_id.
+const char kBootIdPath[] = "/proc/sys/kernel/random/boot_id";
+
 // Return true if |disk_name| is an MTD or a UBI device. Note that this test is
 // simply based on the name of the device.
 bool IsMtdDeviceName(const string& disk_name) {
@@ -1609,6 +1612,13 @@
   return true;
 }
 
+bool GetBootId(string* boot_id) {
+  TEST_AND_RETURN_FALSE(
+      base::ReadFileToString(base::FilePath(kBootIdPath), boot_id));
+  base::TrimWhitespaceASCII(*boot_id, base::TRIM_TRAILING, boot_id);
+  return true;
+}
+
 }  // namespace utils
 
 }  // namespace chromeos_update_engine