diff --git a/src/alert.cpp b/src/alert.cpp
index b900fe41..7f7e59ee 100644
--- a/src/alert.cpp
+++ b/src/alert.cpp
@@ -241,15 +241,7 @@ bool CAlert::ProcessAlert(bool fThread)
                 // be safe we first strip anything not in safeChars, then add single quotes around
                 // the whole string before passing it to the shell:
                 std::string singleQuote("'");
-                // safeChars chosen to allow simple messages/URLs/email addresses, but avoid anything
-                // even possibly remotely dangerous like & or >
-                std::string safeChars("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890 .,;_/:?@");
-                std::string safeStatus;
-                for (std::string::size_type i = 0; i < strStatusBar.size(); i++)
-                {
-                    if (safeChars.find(strStatusBar[i]) != std::string::npos)
-                        safeStatus.push_back(strStatusBar[i]);
-                }
+                std::string safeStatus = SanitizeString(strStatusBar);
                 safeStatus = singleQuote+safeStatus+singleQuote;
                 boost::replace_all(strCmd, "%s", safeStatus);
 
diff --git a/src/util.cpp b/src/util.cpp
index 9562cf31..5411bb2f 100644
--- a/src/util.cpp
+++ b/src/util.cpp
@@ -475,6 +475,19 @@ bool ParseMoney(const char* pszIn, int64_t& nRet)
     return true;
 }
 
+// safeChars chosen to allow simple messages/URLs/email addresses, but avoid anything
+// even possibly remotely dangerous like & or >
+static string safeChars("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890 .,;_/:?@");
+string SanitizeString(const string& str)
+{
+    string strResult;
+    for (std::string::size_type i = 0; i < str.size(); i++)
+    {
+        if (safeChars.find(str[i]) != std::string::npos)
+            strResult.push_back(str[i]);
+    }
+    return strResult;
+}
 
 const signed char p_util_hexdigit[256] =
 { -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index e52e6986..7fae5cc7 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -175,6 +175,7 @@ void ParseString(const std::string& str, char c, std::vector<std::string>& v);
 std::string FormatMoney(int64_t n, bool fPlus=false);
 bool ParseMoney(const std::string& str, int64_t& nRet);
 bool ParseMoney(const char* pszIn, int64_t& nRet);
+std::string SanitizeString(const std::string& str);
 std::vector<unsigned char> ParseHex(const char* psz);
 std::vector<unsigned char> ParseHex(const std::string& str);
 bool IsHex(const std::string& str);