diff --git a/contrib/exec-healthz/Dockerfile b/contrib/exec-healthz/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ca39e5f8671
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/exec-healthz/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors. All rights reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+FROM busybox
+MAINTAINER Prashanth B <beeps@google.com>
+ADD exechealthz exechealthz
+ADD README.md README.md
+ENTRYPOINT ["/exechealthz"]
diff --git a/contrib/exec-healthz/Makefile b/contrib/exec-healthz/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6a200f6ca7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/exec-healthz/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+all: push
+
+# 0.0 shouldn't clobber any released builds
+TAG = 0.0
+PREFIX = gcr.io/google_containers/exechealthz
+
+server: exechealthz.go
+	CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -a -installsuffix cgo -ldflags '-w' -o exechealthz ./exechealthz.go
+
+container: server
+	docker build -t $(PREFIX):$(TAG) .
+
+push: container
+	gcloud docker push $(PREFIX):$(TAG)
+
+clean:
+	rm -f exechealthz
diff --git a/contrib/exec-healthz/README.md b/contrib/exec-healthz/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f970c09cdf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/exec-healthz/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+# Exec healthz server
+
+The exec healthz server is a sidecar container meant to serve as a liveness-exec-over-http bridge. It isolates pods from the idiosyncracies of container runtime exec implemetations.
+
+## Examples:
+
+### Run the healthz server directly on localhost:
+
+```shell
+$ make server
+$ ./exechealthz -cmd "ls /tmp/test"
+$ curl http://localhost:8080/healthz
+Healthz probe error: Result of last exec: ls: cannot access /tmp/test: No such file or directory
+, at 2015-07-08 17:59:45.698036238 -0700 PDT, error exit status 2
+$ touch /tmp/test
+$ curl http://localhost:8080/healthz
+ok
+```
+
+### Run the healthz server in a docker container:
+
+The [docker daemon](https://docs.docker.com/userguide/) needs to be running on your host.
+```shell
+$ make container PREFIX=mycontainer/test
+$ docker run -itP -p 8080:8080 mycontainer/test:0.0 -cmd "ls /tmp/test"
+$ curl http://localhost:8080/healthz
+Healthz probe error: Result of last exec: ls: cannot access /tmp/test: No such file or directory
+, at 2015-07-08 18:00:57.698103532 -0700 PDT, error exit status 2
+
+$ docker ps
+CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                  COMMAND                 CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                    NAMES
+8e86f8accfa6        mycontainer/test:0.0   "/exechealthz -cm"   27 seconds ago      Up 26 seconds       0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp   loving_albattani
+$ docker exec -it 8e86f8accfa6 touch /tmp/test
+$ curl http://localhost:8080/healthz
+ok
+```
+
+### Run the healthz server in a kubernetes pod:
+
+You need a running [kubernetes cluster](../../docs/getting-started-guides/README.md).
+Create a pod.json that looks like:
+```json
+{
+  "kind": "Pod",
+  "apiVersion": "v1",
+  "metadata": {
+    "name": "simple"
+  },
+  "spec": {
+    "containers": [
+      {
+        "name": "healthz",
+        "image": "gcr.io/google_containers/exechealthz:1.0",
+        "args": [
+          "-cmd=nslookup localhost"
+        ],
+        "ports": [
+          {
+            "containerPort": 8080,
+            "protocol": "TCP"
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
+```
+
+And run the pod on your cluster using kubectl:
+```shell
+$ kubectl create -f pod.json
+pods/simple
+$ kubectl get pods -o wide
+NAME     READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE  NODE
+simple   0/1       Pending   0          3s   node
+```
+
+SSH into the node (note that the recommended way to access a server in a container is through a [service](../../docs/services.md), the example that follows is just to illustrate how the kubelet performs an http liveness probe):
+```shell
+node$ kubectl get pods simple -o json | grep podIP
+"podIP": "10.1.0.2",
+
+node$ curl http://10.1.0.2:8080/healthz
+ok
+```
+
+### Run the healthz server as a sidecar container for liveness probes of another container:
+Create a pod.json with 2 containers, one of which is the healthz probe and the other, the container being health checked. The
+pod.json example file in this directory does exactly that. If you create the pod the same way you created the pod in the previous
+example, the kubelet on the node will periodically perform a health check similar to what you did manually and restart the container
+when it fails. Explore [liveness probes](../../examples/liveness/README.md).
+
+## Limitations:
+* Doesn't handle sigterm, which means docker stop on this container can take longer than it needs to.
+* Doesn't sanity check the probe command. You should set the -period and -latency parameters of exechealthz appropriately.
+* Only ever returns 503 or 200.
+
+
+[![Analytics](https://kubernetes-site.appspot.com/UA-36037335-10/GitHub/contrib/exec-healthz/README.md?pixel)]()
diff --git a/contrib/exec-healthz/exechealthz.go b/contrib/exec-healthz/exechealthz.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7a47c9821dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/exec-healthz/exechealthz.go
@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+// A tiny web server that returns 200 on it's healthz endpoint if the command
+// passed in via -cmd exits with 0. Returns 503 otherwise.
+// Usage: exechealthz -port 8080 -period 2s -latency 30s -cmd 'nslookup localhost >/dev/null'
+package main
+
+import (
+	"flag"
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+	"net/http"
+	"os"
+	"os/exec"
+	"sync"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// TODO:
+// 1. Sigterm handler for docker stop
+// 2. Meaningful default healthz
+// 3. 404 for unknown endpoints
+
+var (
+	port       = flag.Int("port", 8080, "Port number to serve /healthz.")
+	cmd        = flag.String("cmd", "echo healthz", "Command to run in response to a GET on /healthz. If the given command exits with 0, /healthz will respond with a 200.")
+	period     = flag.Duration("period", 2*time.Second, "Period to run the given cmd in an async worker.")
+	maxLatency = flag.Duration("latency", 30*time.Second, "If the async worker hasn't updated the probe command output in this long, return a 503.")
+	// prober is the async worker running the cmd, the output of which is used to service /healthz.
+	prober *execWorker
+)
+
+// execResult holds the result of the latest exec from the execWorker.
+type execResult struct {
+	output []byte
+	err    error
+	ts     time.Time
+}
+
+func (r execResult) String() string {
+	errMsg := "None"
+	if r.err != nil {
+		errMsg = fmt.Sprintf("%v", r.err)
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf("Result of last exec: %v, at %v, error %v", string(r.output), r.ts, errMsg)
+}
+
+// execWorker provides an async interface to exec.
+type execWorker struct {
+	result   execResult
+	mutex    sync.Mutex
+	period   time.Duration
+	probeCmd string
+	stopCh   chan struct{}
+}
+
+// getResults returns the results of the latest execWorker run.
+// The caller should treat returned results as read-only.
+func (h *execWorker) getResults() execResult {
+	h.mutex.Lock()
+	defer h.mutex.Unlock()
+	return h.result
+}
+
+// start attemtps to run the probeCmd every `period` seconds.
+// Meant to be called as a goroutine.
+func (h *execWorker) start() {
+	ticker := time.NewTicker(h.period)
+	defer ticker.Stop()
+
+	for {
+		select {
+		// If the command takes > period, the command runs continuously.
+		case <-ticker.C:
+			log.Printf("Worker running %v", *cmd)
+			output, err := exec.Command("sh", "-c", *cmd).CombinedOutput()
+			ts := time.Now()
+			func() {
+				h.mutex.Lock()
+				defer h.mutex.Unlock()
+				h.result = execResult{output, err, ts}
+			}()
+		case <-h.stopCh:
+			return
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// newExecWorker is a constructor for execWorker.
+func newExecWorker(probeCmd string, execPeriod time.Duration) *execWorker {
+	return &execWorker{
+		// Initializing the result with a timestamp here allows us to
+		// wait maxLatency for the worker goroutine to start, and for each
+		// iteration of the worker to complete.
+		result:   execResult{[]byte{}, nil, time.Now()},
+		period:   execPeriod,
+		probeCmd: probeCmd,
+		stopCh:   make(chan struct{}),
+	}
+}
+
+func main() {
+	flag.Parse()
+	links := []struct {
+		link, desc string
+	}{
+		{"/healthz", "healthz probe. Returns \"ok\" if the command given through -cmd exits with 0."},
+		{"/quit", "Cause this container to exit."},
+	}
+	http.HandleFunc("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		fmt.Fprintf(w, "<b> Kubernetes healthz sidecar container </b><br/><br/>")
+		for _, v := range links {
+			fmt.Fprintf(w, `<a href="%v">%v: %v</a><br/>`, v.link, v.link, v.desc)
+		}
+	})
+
+	http.HandleFunc("/quit", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		log.Printf("Shutdown requested via /quit by %v", r.RemoteAddr)
+		os.Exit(0)
+	})
+	prober = newExecWorker(*cmd, *period)
+	defer close(prober.stopCh)
+	go prober.start()
+
+	http.HandleFunc("/healthz", healthzHandler)
+	log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(fmt.Sprintf("0.0.0.0:%d", *port), nil))
+}
+
+func healthzHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+	log.Printf("Client ip %v requesting /healthz probe servicing cmd %v", r.RemoteAddr, *cmd)
+	result := prober.getResults()
+
+	// return 503 if the last command exec returned a non-zero status, or the worker
+	// hasn't run in maxLatency (including when the worker goroutine is cpu starved,
+	// because the pod is probably unavailable too).
+	if result.err != nil {
+		msg := fmt.Sprintf("Healthz probe error: %v", result)
+		log.Printf(msg)
+		http.Error(w, msg, http.StatusServiceUnavailable)
+	} else if time.Since(result.ts) > *maxLatency {
+		msg := fmt.Sprintf("Latest result too old to be useful: %v.", result)
+		log.Printf(msg)
+		http.Error(w, msg, http.StatusServiceUnavailable)
+	} else {
+		fmt.Fprintf(w, "ok")
+	}
+}
diff --git a/contrib/exec-healthz/pod.json b/contrib/exec-healthz/pod.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e000bee62b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/exec-healthz/pod.json
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+{
+  "kind": "Pod",
+  "apiVersion": "v1",
+  "metadata": {
+    "name": "simple"
+  },
+  "spec": {
+    "containers": [
+      {
+        "name": "healthz",
+        "image": "gcr.io/google_containers/exechealthz:1.0",
+        "args": [
+          "-cmd=nslookup localhost"
+        ],
+        "ports": [
+          {
+            "containerPort": 8080,
+            "protocol": "TCP"
+          }
+        ]
+      },
+      {
+        "name":"test-container",
+        "image":"ubuntu:14.04",
+        "command": ["bash", "-c", "while true; do sleep 100; done"],
+        "livenessProbe": {
+          "httpGet": {
+            "path": "/healthz",
+            "port":8080
+          },
+          "initialDelaySeconds": 10,
+          "timeoutSeconds": 2
+        }
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}