diff --git a/daemon/core/privilege-helper.hpp b/daemon/core/privilege-helper.hpp
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+++ b/daemon/core/privilege-helper.hpp
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+/* -*- Mode:C++; c-file-style:"gnu"; indent-tabs-mode:nil; -*- */
+/**
+ * Copyright (c) 2014  Regents of the University of California,
+ *                     Arizona Board of Regents,
+ *                     Colorado State University,
+ *                     University Pierre & Marie Curie, Sorbonne University,
+ *                     Washington University in St. Louis,
+ *                     Beijing Institute of Technology
+ *
+ * This file is part of NFD (Named Data Networking Forwarding Daemon).
+ * See AUTHORS.md for complete list of NFD authors and contributors.
+ *
+ * NFD is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
+ * of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation,
+ * either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * NFD 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
+ * NFD, e.g., in COPYING.md file.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ **/
+
+#ifndef NFD_CORE_PRIVILEGE_HELPER_HPP
+#define NFD_CORE_PRIVILEGE_HELPER_HPP
+
+#include "common.hpp"
+
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+namespace nfd {
+
+class PrivilegeHelper
+{
+public:
+
+  /// \brief PrivilegeHelper::Error represents a serious seteuid/gid failure and
+  ///        should only be caught by main in as part of a graceful program termination.
+  class Error
+  {
+  public:
+    explicit
+    Error(const std::string& what)
+      : m_whatMessage(what)
+    {
+    }
+
+    const char*
+    what() const
+    {
+      return m_whatMessage.c_str();
+    }
+
+  private:
+    const std::string m_whatMessage;
+  };
+
+  static void
+  initialize(const std::string& userName, const std::string& groupName);
+
+  static void
+  drop();
+
+  static void
+  runElevated(function<void()> f);
+
+private:
+
+  static void
+  raise();
+
+private:
+
+  static uid_t s_normalUid;
+  static gid_t s_normalGid;
+
+  static uid_t s_privilegedUid;
+  static gid_t s_privilegedGid;
+};
+
+} // namespace nfd
+
+#endif // NFD_CORE_PRIVILEGE_HELPER_HPP