diff --git a/payloads/libpayload/include/string.h b/payloads/libpayload/include/string.h
index 9e4f791a7d..b75128a5ee 100644
--- a/payloads/libpayload/include/string.h
+++ b/payloads/libpayload/include/string.h
@@ -67,6 +67,13 @@ char* strtok(char *str, const char *delim);
 char* strtok_r(char *str, const char *delim, char **ptr);
 /** @} */
 
+/**
+ * @defgroup string Unicode functions
+ * @{
+ */
+char *utf16le_to_ascii(uint16_t *utf16_string, int maxlen);
+/** @} */
+
 /**
  * @defgroup string OpenBSD based safe string functions
  * @{
diff --git a/payloads/libpayload/libc/string.c b/payloads/libpayload/libc/string.c
index cfa0b4ada4..883d158222 100644
--- a/payloads/libpayload/libc/string.c
+++ b/payloads/libpayload/libc/string.c
@@ -643,3 +643,22 @@ void perror(const char *s)
 {
 	printf("%s: %d\n", s?s:"(none)", errno);
 }
+
+/**
+ * Simple routine to convert UTF-16 to ASCII, giving up with ? if too high.
+ * A single code point may convert to ?? if in not in the BMP.
+ * @param utf16_string A string encoded in UTF-16LE
+ * @param maxlen Maximum possible length of the string in code points
+ * @return Newly allocated ASCII string
+ */
+char *utf16le_to_ascii(uint16_t *utf16_string, int maxlen)
+{
+	char *ascii_string = xmalloc(maxlen + 1);  /* +1 for trailing \0 */
+	ascii_string[maxlen] = '\0';
+	int i;
+	for (i = 0; i < maxlen; i++) {
+		uint16_t wchar = utf16_string[i];
+		ascii_string[i] = wchar > 0x7f ? '?' : (char)wchar;
+	}
+	return ascii_string;
+}