diff --git a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
index 1c672d2c70..7462d02bee 100644
--- a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
+++ b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.c
@@ -2114,6 +2114,17 @@ nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape_bytes (GBytes *bytes, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags
 	return nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape (p, l, flags, to_free);
 }
 
+char *
+nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape_cp (gconstpointer buf, gssize buflen, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags)
+{
+	const char *s_const;
+	char *s;
+
+	s_const = nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape (buf, buflen, flags, &s);
+	nm_assert (!s || s == s_const);
+	return s ?: g_strdup (s_const);
+}
+
 /*****************************************************************************/
 
 const char *
diff --git a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
index e0b6adafdd..fd1453db93 100644
--- a/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
+++ b/shared/nm-glib-aux/nm-shared-utils.h
@@ -889,6 +889,7 @@ typedef enum {
 } NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags;
 
 const char *nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape (gconstpointer buf, gssize buflen, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, char **to_free);
+char *nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape_cp (gconstpointer buf, gssize buflen, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags);
 const char *nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_escape_bytes (GBytes *bytes, NMUtilsStrUtf8SafeFlags flags, char **to_free);
 gconstpointer nm_utils_buf_utf8safe_unescape (const char *str, gsize *out_len, gpointer *to_free);