diff --git a/shared/nm-utils/nm-shared-utils.h b/shared/nm-utils/nm-shared-utils.h
index 9f86a15170..f966d293d1 100644
--- a/shared/nm-utils/nm-shared-utils.h
+++ b/shared/nm-utils/nm-shared-utils.h
@@ -501,6 +501,18 @@ int nm_utils_fd_read_loop_exact (int fd, void *buf, size_t nbytes, bool do_poll)
 
 /*****************************************************************************/
 
+static inline const char *
+nm_utils_dbus_normalize_object_path (const char *path)
+{
+	/* D-Bus does not allow an empty object path. Hence, whenever we mean NULL / no-object
+	 * on D-Bus, it's path is actually "/".
+	 *
+	 * Normalize that away, and return %NULL in that case. */
+	if (path && path[0] == '/' && path[1] == '\0')
+		return NULL;
+	return path;
+}
+
 #define NM_DEFINE_GDBUS_ARG_INFO_FULL(name_, ...) \
 	((GDBusArgInfo *) (&((const GDBusArgInfo) { \
 		.ref_count = -1, \