diff --git a/common/strlist.c b/common/strlist.c
index d9aed16f2..6816dcf1a 100644
--- a/common/strlist.c
+++ b/common/strlist.c
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 /* strlist.c -  string helpers
  * Copyright (C) 1998, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2015  g10 Code GmbH
  *
  * This file is part of JNLIB, which is a subsystem of GnuPG.
  *
@@ -212,3 +213,16 @@ strlist_pop (strlist_t *list)
 
   return str;
 }
+
+/* Return the first element of the string list HAYSTACK whose string
+   matches NEEDLE.  If no elements match, return NULL.  */
+strlist_t
+strlist_find (strlist_t haystack, const char *needle)
+{
+  for (;
+       haystack;
+       haystack = haystack->next)
+    if (strcmp (haystack->d, needle) == 0)
+      return haystack;
+  return NULL;
+}
diff --git a/common/strlist.h b/common/strlist.h
index c72549fe8..94567df0a 100644
--- a/common/strlist.h
+++ b/common/strlist.h
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ strlist_t strlist_prev (strlist_t head, strlist_t node);
 strlist_t strlist_last (strlist_t node);
 char * strlist_pop (strlist_t *list);
 
+strlist_t strlist_find (strlist_t haystack, const char *needle);
+
+
 #define FREE_STRLIST(a) do { free_strlist((a)); (a) = NULL ; } while(0)