diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
index d8582454de..5dea310ea0 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
@@ -996,5 +996,15 @@ _require_one_device_of()
     _notrun "$* not available"
 }
 
+_qcow2_dump_header()
+{
+    img="$1"
+    if [ -z "$img" ]; then
+        img="$TEST_IMG"
+    fi
+
+    $PYTHON qcow2.py "$img" dump-header
+}
+
 # make sure this script returns success
 true