diff --git a/src/libvirt_private.syms b/src/libvirt_private.syms
index 7b477a561e..2149b11b74 100644
--- a/src/libvirt_private.syms
+++ b/src/libvirt_private.syms
@@ -2692,6 +2692,7 @@ virStrcpy;
 virStrdup;
 virStringBufferIsPrintable;
 virStringEncodeBase64;
+virStringHasChars;
 virStringHasControlChars;
 virStringIsEmpty;
 virStringIsPrintable;
diff --git a/src/util/virstring.c b/src/util/virstring.c
index 58abf9dd61..0288d1e677 100644
--- a/src/util/virstring.c
+++ b/src/util/virstring.c
@@ -1195,6 +1195,24 @@ virStringStripIPv6Brackets(char *str)
 }
 
 
+/**
+ * virStringHasChars:
+ * @str: string to look for chars in
+ * @chars: chars to find in string @str
+ *
+ * Returns true if @str contains any of the chars in @chars.
+ */
+bool
+virStringHasChars(const char *str,
+                  const char *chars)
+{
+    if (!str)
+        return false;
+
+    return str[strcspn(str, chars)] != '\0';
+}
+
+
 static const char control_chars[] =
     "\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07"
     "\x08" /* \t \n */ "\x0B\x0C" /* \r */ "\x0E\x0F"
@@ -1204,10 +1222,7 @@ static const char control_chars[] =
 bool
 virStringHasControlChars(const char *str)
 {
-    if (!str)
-        return false;
-
-    return str[strcspn(str, control_chars)] != '\0';
+    return virStringHasChars(str, control_chars);
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/util/virstring.h b/src/util/virstring.h
index ff5f0148d6..1290fcce15 100644
--- a/src/util/virstring.h
+++ b/src/util/virstring.h
@@ -286,6 +286,8 @@ char *virStringReplace(const char *haystack,
     ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1) ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(2) ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(3);
 
 void virStringStripIPv6Brackets(char *str);
+bool virStringHasChars(const char *str,
+                       const char *chars);
 bool virStringHasControlChars(const char *str);
 void virStringStripControlChars(char *str);