diff --git a/src/libvirt_private.syms b/src/libvirt_private.syms
index f1a9e7e964a8ab4163b7bc6da0a76589d7b68b7d..5b056504bccbc4d1bfb9905b68fc169a81fbe623 100644
--- a/src/libvirt_private.syms
+++ b/src/libvirt_private.syms
@@ -1785,6 +1785,7 @@ virSocketAddrFormatFull;
 virSocketAddrGetPort;
 virSocketAddrGetRange;
 virSocketAddrIsNetmask;
+virSocketAddrIsPrivate;
 virSocketAddrMask;
 virSocketAddrMaskByPrefix;
 virSocketAddrParse;
diff --git a/src/util/virsocketaddr.c b/src/util/virsocketaddr.c
index b6cc16f02c747f44a7944baa2ea286d2c507fe9c..488ff4b7cc18fc2068ac01010ec314d5f167d2c9 100644
--- a/src/util/virsocketaddr.c
+++ b/src/util/virsocketaddr.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2009-2012 Red Hat, Inc.
  *
  * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
@@ -193,6 +193,39 @@ virSocketAddrEqual(const virSocketAddrPtr s1, const virSocketAddrPtr s2)
     return false;
 }
 
+/*
+ * virSocketAddrIsPrivate:
+ * @s: the location of the IP address
+ *
+ * Return true if this address is in its family's defined
+ * "private/local" address space. For IPv4, private addresses are in
+ * the range of 192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/16, or 10.0.0.0/8.  For
+ * IPv6, local addresses are in the range of FC00::/7 or FEC0::/10
+ * (that last one is deprecated, but still in use).
+ *
+ * See RFC1918, RFC3484, and RFC4193 for details.
+ */
+bool
+virSocketAddrIsPrivate(const virSocketAddrPtr addr)
+{
+    unsigned long val;
+
+    switch (addr->data.stor.ss_family) {
+    case AF_INET:
+       val = ntohl(addr->data.inet4.sin_addr.s_addr);
+
+       return ((val & 0xFFFF0000) == ((192L << 24) + (168 << 16)) ||
+               (val & 0xFFFF0000) == ((172L << 24) + (16  << 16)) ||
+               (val & 0xFF000000) == ((10L  << 24)));
+
+    case AF_INET6:
+        return ((addr->data.inet6.sin6_addr.s6_addr[0] & 0xFE) == 0xFC ||
+                ((addr->data.inet6.sin6_addr.s6_addr[0] & 0xFF) == 0xFE &&
+                 (addr->data.inet6.sin6_addr.s6_addr[1] & 0xC0) == 0xC0));
+    }
+    return false;
+}
+
 /*
  * virSocketAddrFormat:
  * @addr: an initialized virSocketAddrPtr
diff --git a/src/util/virsocketaddr.h b/src/util/virsocketaddr.h
index 51ddd2d0d8fd7cf1e6a2eb9368e9bca7fe316562..66d42657d320cd188db7da820338c904259431a0 100644
--- a/src/util/virsocketaddr.h
+++ b/src/util/virsocketaddr.h
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2009-2012 Red Hat, Inc.
  *
  * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
@@ -104,5 +104,6 @@ int virSocketAddrPrefixToNetmask(unsigned int prefix,
                                  int family);
 bool virSocketAddrEqual(const virSocketAddrPtr s1,
                         const virSocketAddrPtr s2);
+bool virSocketAddrIsPrivate(const virSocketAddrPtr addr);
 
 #endif /* __VIR_SOCKETADDR_H__ */