diff --git a/classic/run.go b/classic/run.go
index 2b9b09b9a9d..4cacc31db5c 100644
--- a/classic/run.go
+++ b/classic/run.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/dirs"
-	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/helpers"
+	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/strutil"
 )
 
 type bindMount struct {
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ var bindMountDirs = []bindMount{
 func genClassicScopeName() string {
 	now := time.Now()
 	ti := fmt.Sprintf("%4d-%02d-%02d_%02d:%02d:%02d", now.Year(), now.Month(), now.Day(), now.Hour(), now.Minute(), now.Second())
-	return fmt.Sprintf("snappy-classic_%s_%s.scope", ti, helpers.MakeRandomString(5))
+	return fmt.Sprintf("snappy-classic_%s_%s.scope", ti, strutil.MakeRandomString(5))
 }
 
 func runInClassicEnv(cmdStr ...string) error {
diff --git a/helpers/helpers.go b/helpers/helpers.go
index 0a6adc2c392..e8bc3db1244 100644
--- a/helpers/helpers.go
+++ b/helpers/helpers.go
@@ -21,20 +21,13 @@ package helpers
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
-	"math/rand"
 	"reflect"
 	"strings"
 	"text/template"
-	"time"
 
 	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/logger"
 )
 
-func init() {
-	// golang does not init Seed() itself
-	rand.Seed(time.Now().UTC().UnixNano())
-}
-
 // MakeMapFromEnvList takes a string list of the form "key=value"
 // and returns a map[string]string from that list
 // This is useful for os.Environ() manipulation
@@ -50,22 +43,6 @@ func MakeMapFromEnvList(env []string) map[string]string {
 	return envMap
 }
 
-const letters = "BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYbcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxy0123456789"
-
-// MakeRandomString returns a random string of length length
-//
-// The vowels are omited to avoid that words are created by pure
-// chance. Numbers are included.
-func MakeRandomString(length int) string {
-
-	out := ""
-	for i := 0; i < length; i++ {
-		out += string(letters[rand.Intn(len(letters))])
-	}
-
-	return out
-}
-
 // Getattr get the attribute of the given name
 func Getattr(i interface{}, name string) interface{} {
 	v := reflect.ValueOf(i)
diff --git a/helpers/helpers_test.go b/helpers/helpers_test.go
index 8e630284559..0a95f447230 100644
--- a/helpers/helpers_test.go
+++ b/helpers/helpers_test.go
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ package helpers
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
-	"math/rand"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -57,17 +56,6 @@ func (ts *HTestSuite) TestMakeMapFromEnvListInvalidInput(c *C) {
 	c.Assert(envMap, DeepEquals, map[string]string(nil))
 }
 
-func (ts *HTestSuite) TestMakeRandomString(c *C) {
-	// for our tests
-	rand.Seed(1)
-
-	s1 := MakeRandomString(10)
-	c.Assert(s1, Equals, "pw7MpXh0JB")
-
-	s2 := MakeRandomString(5)
-	c.Assert(s2, Equals, "4PQyl")
-}
-
 func skipOnMissingDevKmsg(c *C) {
 	_, err := os.Stat("/dev/kmsg")
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/oauth/oauth.go b/oauth/oauth.go
index 6d53eaa5018..7c663de0065 100644
--- a/oauth/oauth.go
+++ b/oauth/oauth.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/helpers"
+	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/strutil"
 )
 
 // Token contains the sso token
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ func quote(s string) string {
 func MakePlaintextSignature(token *Token) string {
 	// hrm, rfc5849 says that nonce, timestamp are not used for PLAINTEXT
 	// but our sso server is unhappy without, so
-	nonce := helpers.MakeRandomString(60)
+	nonce := strutil.MakeRandomString(60)
 	timestamp := time.Now().Unix()
 
 	s := fmt.Sprintf(`OAuth oauth_nonce="%s", oauth_timestamp="%v", oauth_version="1.0", oauth_signature_method="PLAINTEXT", oauth_consumer_key="%s", oauth_token="%s", oauth_signature="%s%%26%s"`, nonce, timestamp, quote(token.ConsumerKey), quote(token.TokenKey), quote(token.ConsumerSecret), quote(token.TokenSecret))
diff --git a/osutil/io.go b/osutil/io.go
index 346881bcbc3..b0f500515cd 100644
--- a/osutil/io.go
+++ b/osutil/io.go
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 
-	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/helpers"
+	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/strutil"
 )
 
 // AtomicWriteFlags are a bitfield of flags for AtomicWriteFile
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ func AtomicWriteFile(filename string, data []byte, perm os.FileMode, flags Atomi
 			}
 		}
 	}
-	tmp := filename + "." + helpers.MakeRandomString(12)
+	tmp := filename + "." + strutil.MakeRandomString(12)
 
 	// XXX: if go switches to use aio_fsync, we need to open the dir for writing
 	dir, err := os.Open(filepath.Dir(filename))
diff --git a/osutil/io_test.go b/osutil/io_test.go
index 537bea2c1d9..5c403aced16 100644
--- a/osutil/io_test.go
+++ b/osutil/io_test.go
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 
-	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/helpers"
+	"github.com/ubuntu-core/snappy/strutil"
 
 	. "gopkg.in/check.v1"
 )
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ func (ts *AtomicWriteTestSuite) TestAtomicWriteFileNoOverwriteTmpExisting(c *C)
 	tmpdir := c.MkDir()
 	// ensure we always get the same result
 	rand.Seed(1)
-	expectedRandomness := helpers.MakeRandomString(12)
+	expectedRandomness := strutil.MakeRandomString(12)
 	// ensure we always get the same result
 	rand.Seed(1)
 
diff --git a/strutil/strutil.go b/strutil/strutil.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d7a95708e2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/strutil/strutil.go
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+// -*- Mode: Go; indent-tabs-mode: t -*-
+
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2014-2015 Canonical Ltd
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 as
+ * published by the Free Software Foundation.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ */
+
+package strutil
+
+import (
+	"math/rand"
+	"time"
+)
+
+func init() {
+	// golang does not init Seed() itself
+	rand.Seed(time.Now().UTC().UnixNano())
+}
+
+const letters = "BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXYbcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxy0123456789"
+
+// MakeRandomString returns a random string of length length
+//
+// The vowels are omited to avoid that words are created by pure
+// chance. Numbers are included.
+func MakeRandomString(length int) string {
+
+	out := ""
+	for i := 0; i < length; i++ {
+		out += string(letters[rand.Intn(len(letters))])
+	}
+
+	return out
+}
diff --git a/strutil/strutil_test.go b/strutil/strutil_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bda68f5581e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/strutil/strutil_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+// -*- Mode: Go; indent-tabs-mode: t -*-
+
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2014-2015 Canonical Ltd
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 as
+ * published by the Free Software Foundation.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ */
+
+package strutil
+
+import (
+	"math/rand"
+	"testing"
+
+	. "gopkg.in/check.v1"
+)
+
+func Test(t *testing.T) { TestingT(t) }
+
+type MakeRandomStringTestSuite struct{}
+
+var _ = Suite(&MakeRandomStringTestSuite{})
+
+func (ts *MakeRandomStringTestSuite) TestMakeRandomString(c *C) {
+	// for our tests
+	rand.Seed(1)
+
+	s1 := MakeRandomString(10)
+	c.Assert(s1, Equals, "pw7MpXh0JB")
+
+	s2 := MakeRandomString(5)
+	c.Assert(s2, Equals, "4PQyl")
+}