diff --git a/src/capwap/format.c b/src/capwap/format.c
index 01820335..c784d7e8 100644
--- a/src/capwap/format.c
+++ b/src/capwap/format.c
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@
     along with Foobar.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 */
+
+
 /**
  * @file
  * @brief Implementation of various format functions.
@@ -57,5 +59,54 @@ int cw_format_hex_bytes(char *dst, const char *format, const char *delim,
 
 
 
+/**
+ * Read hex bytes from a string to an uint8_t array
+ * @param dst destination array
+ * @param s string to read
+ * @param len length of string
+ * @return 0 if all was ok \n 1 if an error has occured.
+ */
+
+int cw_format_scan_hex_bytes(uint8_t *dst,const char *s, int len)
+{
+	int rc ;
+	int err=0;
+	int val;
+	int c;
+	int i;
+
+	if ( len & 1){
+		rc = sscanf(s,"%01X",&c);
+		if (rc!=1){
+			c=0;
+			err=1;
+		}
+		*dst++=c;
+		s++;
+		len--;
+	}
+
+
+	for (i=0; i<len; i++){
+		rc = sscanf(s+i,"%01X",&c);
+		if (rc!=1){
+			c=0;
+			err=1;
+		}
+
+
+		if (!(i&1)) {
+			val = c<<4;	
+
+		}
+		else{
+			val |= c;
+			*dst++=val;
+		}
+
+	}
+	
+	return err;
+}