diff --git a/clients/cloud-setup/nm-cloud-setup-utils.c b/clients/cloud-setup/nm-cloud-setup-utils.c
index 5705c63179..a244e07c01 100644
--- a/clients/cloud-setup/nm-cloud-setup-utils.c
+++ b/clients/cloud-setup/nm-cloud-setup-utils.c
@@ -501,8 +501,7 @@ nmcs_utils_hwaddr_normalize (const char *hwaddr, gssize len)
 		nm_assert (hwaddr);
 		hwaddr = nm_strndup_a (300, hwaddr, len, &hwaddr_clone);
 	}
-
-	if (!nm_utils_hwaddr_aton (hwaddr, buf, sizeof (buf)))
+	if(!nm_utils_hexstr2bin_full (hwaddr, FALSE, FALSE, ":-", sizeof (buf), buf, sizeof (buf), NULL))
 		return NULL;
 
 	return nm_utils_hwaddr_ntoa (buf, sizeof (buf));