diff --git a/include/cutils/uevent.h b/include/cutils/uevent.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..587149c7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/cutils/uevent.h
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2011 The Android Open Source Project
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+#ifndef __CUTILS_UEVENT_H
+#define __CUTILS_UEVENT_H
+
+#include <sys/socket.h>
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+extern "C" {
+#endif
+
+ssize_t uevent_checked_recv(int socket, void *buffer, size_t length);
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+}
+#endif
+
+#endif /* __CUTILS_UEVENT_H */
diff --git a/init/devices.c b/init/devices.c
index e73efdf03..eb5d84e05 100644
--- a/init/devices.c
+++ b/init/devices.c
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@
 #include <asm/page.h>
 #include <sys/wait.h>
 
+#include <cutils/uevent.h>
+
 #include "devices.h"
 #include "util.h"
 #include "log.h"
@@ -589,35 +591,9 @@ static void handle_firmware_event(struct uevent *uevent)
 #define UEVENT_MSG_LEN  1024
 void handle_device_fd()
 {
-    for(;;) {
-        char msg[UEVENT_MSG_LEN+2];
-        char cred_msg[CMSG_SPACE(sizeof(struct ucred))];
-        struct iovec iov = {msg, sizeof(msg)};
-        struct sockaddr_nl snl;
-        struct msghdr hdr = {&snl, sizeof(snl), &iov, 1, cred_msg, sizeof(cred_msg), 0};
-
-        ssize_t n = recvmsg(device_fd, &hdr, 0);
-        if (n <= 0) {
-            break;
-        }
-
-        if ((snl.nl_groups != 1) || (snl.nl_pid != 0)) {
-            /* ignoring non-kernel netlink multicast message */
-            continue;
-        }
-
-        struct cmsghdr * cmsg = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&hdr);
-        if (cmsg == NULL || cmsg->cmsg_type != SCM_CREDENTIALS) {
-            /* no sender credentials received, ignore message */
-            continue;
-        }
-
-        struct ucred * cred = (struct ucred *)CMSG_DATA(cmsg);
-        if (cred->uid != 0) {
-            /* message from non-root user, ignore */
-            continue;
-        }
-
+    char msg[UEVENT_MSG_LEN+2];
+    int n;
+    while ((n = uevent_checked_recv(device_fd, msg, UEVENT_MSG_LEN)) > 0) {
         if(n >= UEVENT_MSG_LEN)   /* overflow -- discard */
             continue;
 
diff --git a/libcutils/Android.mk b/libcutils/Android.mk
index 3dc3d694a..1951c1df0 100644
--- a/libcutils/Android.mk
+++ b/libcutils/Android.mk
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ else
         mspace.c \
         selector.c \
         tztime.c \
+        uevent.c \
         zygote.c
 
     commonHostSources += \
diff --git a/libcutils/uevent.c b/libcutils/uevent.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3533c00f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libcutils/uevent.c
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2011 The Android Open Source Project
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+#include <cutils/uevent.h>
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <strings.h>
+
+#include <linux/netlink.h>
+
+/**
+ * Like recv(), but checks that messages actually originate from the kernel.
+ */
+ssize_t uevent_checked_recv(int socket, void *buffer, size_t length) {
+    struct iovec iov = { buffer, length };
+    struct sockaddr_nl addr;
+    char control[CMSG_SPACE(sizeof(struct ucred))];
+    struct msghdr hdr = {
+        &addr,
+        sizeof(addr),
+        &iov,
+        1,
+        control,
+        sizeof(control),
+        0,
+    };
+
+    ssize_t n = recvmsg(socket, &hdr, 0);
+    if (n <= 0) {
+        return n;
+    }
+
+    if (addr.nl_groups == 0 || addr.nl_pid != 0) {
+        /* ignoring non-kernel or unicast netlink message */
+        goto out;
+    }
+
+    struct cmsghdr *cmsg = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&hdr);
+    if (cmsg == NULL || cmsg->cmsg_type != SCM_CREDENTIALS) {
+        /* ignoring netlink message with no sender credentials */
+        goto out;
+    }
+
+    struct ucred *cred = (struct ucred *)CMSG_DATA(cmsg);
+    if (cred->uid != 0) {
+        /* ignoring netlink message from non-root user */
+        goto out;
+    }
+
+    return n;
+
+out:
+    /* clear residual potentially malicious data */
+    bzero(buffer, length);
+    errno = EIO;
+    return -1;
+}