diff --git a/userspace/falco/utils.cpp b/userspace/falco/utils.cpp
index 12900799..76d20468 100644
--- a/userspace/falco/utils.cpp
+++ b/userspace/falco/utils.cpp
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.
 */
 
+#include <cstring>
+
 #include "utils.h"
 #include "banned.h" // This raises a compilation error when certain functions are used
 
@@ -33,3 +35,15 @@ void falco::utils::read(const std::string& filename, std::string& data)
 
 	return;
 }
+
+bool falco::utils::starts_with(const std::string& text, const std::string& prefix)
+{
+	return prefix.empty() ||
+	       (text.size() >= prefix.size() &&
+		std::memcmp(text.data(), prefix.data(), prefix.size()) == 0);
+}
+
+bool falco::utils::network::url_is_unix_scheme(const std::string& url)
+{
+	return starts_with(url, UNIX_SCHEME);
+}
diff --git a/userspace/falco/utils.h b/userspace/falco/utils.h
index 30d6bd15..a91ea978 100644
--- a/userspace/falco/utils.h
+++ b/userspace/falco/utils.h
@@ -26,5 +26,12 @@ namespace falco
 namespace utils
 {
 void read(const std::string& filename, std::string& data);
+bool starts_with(const std::string& text, const std::string& prefix);
+
+namespace network
+{
+static const std::string UNIX_SCHEME{"unix://"};
+bool url_is_unix_scheme(const std::string& url);
+} // namespace network
 } // namespace utils
 } // namespace falco