diff --git a/lib/resources/passwd.rb b/lib/resources/passwd.rb
index 328c20d56..6c6009cb7 100644
--- a/lib/resources/passwd.rb
+++ b/lib/resources/passwd.rb
@@ -23,9 +23,13 @@
 #   its(:count) { should eq 1 }
 # end
 
+require 'utils/parser'
+
 class Passwd < Vulcano.resource(1)
   name 'passwd'
 
+  include ContentParser
+
   attr_reader :uid
   attr_reader :parsed
 
diff --git a/lib/utils/parser.rb b/lib/utils/parser.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d1e9e73be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/utils/parser.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+
+module ContentParser
+  # parse etc/passwd file
+  def parse_passwd(content)
+    content.split("\n").map do |line|
+      parse_passwd_line(line)
+    end
+  end
+
+  # parse a etc/passwd line
+  def parse_passwd_line(line)
+    x = line.split(':')
+    {
+      'name' => x.at(0),
+      'password' => x.at(1),
+      'uid' => x.at(2),
+      'gid' => x.at(3),
+      'desc' => x.at(4),
+      'home' => x.at(5),
+      'shell' => x.at(6),
+    }
+  end
+end