diff --git a/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/Makefile b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..dd57e45f27107856e5c16abc913baacd2e98fe62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+RIOTBASE := ../../..
+RIOT_INCLUDE := $(RIOTBASE)/sys/include
+RIOT_CORE_INC := $(RIOTBASE)/core/include
+NATIVE_INCLUDE := $(RIOTBASE)/cpu/native/include
+COMMON_SRC := common.c
+COMMON_HDR := common.h
+
+RIOT_HDR_SRC := \
+ $(RIOTBASE)/sys/checksum/fletcher32.c \
+ $(RIOTBASE)/sys/riotboot/hdr.c
+
+RIOT_HDR_HDR := $(RIOT_INCLUDE)/riotboot/hdr.h \
+ $(RIOT_INCLUDE)/checksum/fletcher32.h \
+ $(RIOTBASE)/core/include/byteorder.h
+
+GENHDR_SRC := $(COMMON_SRC) $(RIOT_HDR_SRC) \
+ main.c genhdr.c
+
+GENHDR_HDR := $(COMMON_HDR) $(RIOT_HDR_HDR)
+
+CFLAGS += -g -I. -O3 -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -std=c99
+
+ifeq ($(QUIET),1)
+ Q=@
+else
+ Q=
+endif
+
+all: bin/genhdr
+
+bin/:
+ $(Q)mkdir -p bin
+
+bin/genhdr: $(GENHDR_HDR) $(GENHDR_SRC) Makefile | bin/
+ $(Q)$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -I$(RIOT_INCLUDE) -I$(RIOT_CORE_INC) \
+ -I$(NATIVE_INCLUDE) $(GENHDR_SRC) -o $@
+
+clean:
+ $(Q)rm -rf bin/
diff --git a/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/common.c b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/common.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c3cb771b6a15c183369e5d91a5c5bc14c06b11f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/common.c
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2017 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ *
+ * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public
+ * License v2. See the file LICENSE for more details.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @file
+ * @brief Common tools for RIOT images header generation
+ *
+ * @author Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ */
+
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+int to_file(const char *filename, void *buf, size_t len)
+{
+ int fd;
+
+ if (strcmp("-", filename)) {
+ fd = open(filename, O_CREAT | O_WRONLY, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
+ }
+ else {
+ fd = STDOUT_FILENO;
+ }
+
+ if (fd > 0) {
+ ssize_t res = write(fd, buf, len);
+ close(fd);
+ return res == (ssize_t)len;
+ }
+ else {
+ return fd;
+ }
+}
diff --git a/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/common.h b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/common.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f3380d8ffb4b3d777cb9048e8f58f9636d573a0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/common.h
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2017 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ *
+ * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public
+ * License v2. See the file LICENSE for more details.
+ */
+
+#ifndef COMMON_H
+#define COMMON_H
+
+#include <stddef.h>
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+ extern "C" {
+#endif
+
+/**
+ * @brief Write len bytes of a given buffer into a file
+ *
+ * @param[out] filename name of the file to be written
+ * @param[in] buf a pointer to the buffer which needs to be written
+ * @param[in] len the number of bytes from buf to be written
+ *
+ */
+int to_file(const char *filename, void *buf, size_t len);
+
+#ifdef __cplusplus
+} /* end extern "C" */
+#endif
+
+#endif /* COMMON_H */
diff --git a/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/genhdr.c b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/genhdr.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f8559d589fddc002ff07c0a1ad94af9b6666ae46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/genhdr.c
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2016 Inria
+ * 2017 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ *
+ * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public
+ * License v2. See the file LICENSE for more details.
+ *
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @author Francisco Acosta <francisco.acosta@inria.fr>
+ * @author Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ */
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <limits.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdint.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+#include "riotboot/hdr.h"
+#include "common.h"
+
+/**
+ * @brief Alignment required to set VTOR in Cortex-M0+/3/4/7
+ */
+#define HDR_ALIGN (256)
+
+static void populate_hdr(riotboot_hdr_t *hdr, uint32_t ver, uint32_t addr)
+{
+ /* ensure the buffer and header have 0's */
+ memset(hdr, '\0', sizeof(riotboot_hdr_t));
+
+ /* Generate image header */
+ hdr->magic_number = RIOTBOOT_MAGIC;
+ hdr->version = ver;
+ hdr->start_addr = addr;
+
+ /* calculate header checksum */
+ hdr->chksum = riotboot_hdr_checksum(hdr);
+}
+
+int genhdr(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+ const char generate_usage[] = "<IMG_BIN> <APP_VER> <START_ADDR> <HDR_LEN> <outfile|->";
+
+ /* riotboot_hdr buffer */
+ uint8_t *hdr_buf;
+
+ /* arguments storage variables */
+ long app_ver_arg = 0;
+ long start_addr_arg = 0;
+ long hdr_len_arg = 0;
+
+ /* header variables */
+ size_t hdr_len = 0;
+ uint32_t app_ver = 0;
+ uint32_t start_addr = 0;
+
+ /* helpers */
+ errno = 0;
+ char *p;
+
+ if (argc < 6) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "usage: genhdr generate %s\n", generate_usage);
+ return -1;
+ }
+
+ app_ver_arg = strtol(argv[2], &p, 0);
+ if (errno != 0 || *p != '\0' || app_ver_arg > UINT32_MAX) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Error: APP_VER not valid!\n");
+ }
+ else {
+ app_ver = app_ver_arg;
+ }
+
+ start_addr_arg = strtol(argv[3], &p, 0);
+ if (errno != 0 || *p != '\0' || start_addr_arg > UINT32_MAX) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Error: START_ADDR not valid!\n");
+ }
+ else {
+ start_addr = start_addr_arg;
+ }
+
+ hdr_len_arg = strtol(argv[4], &p, 0);
+ if (errno != 0 || *p != '\0' || hdr_len_arg % HDR_ALIGN || hdr_len_arg > UINT32_MAX) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Error: HDR_LEN not valid!\n");
+ return -1;
+ }
+ else {
+ hdr_len = hdr_len_arg;
+ }
+
+ /* prepare a 0 initialised buffer for riotboot_hdr_t */
+ hdr_buf = calloc(1, hdr_len);
+ if (hdr_buf == NULL) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Error: not enough memory!\n");
+ return -1;
+ }
+
+ populate_hdr((riotboot_hdr_t*)hdr_buf, app_ver, start_addr);
+
+ /* Write the header */
+ if (!to_file(argv[5], hdr_buf, hdr_len)) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "Error: cannot write output\n");
+ free(hdr_buf);
+ return 1;
+ }
+
+ free(hdr_buf);
+
+ return 0;
+}
diff --git a/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/main.c b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/main.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6288fa29edda6b155c743e25f77e57aa8cceb8d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dist/tools/riotboot_gen_hdr/main.c
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2017 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ * 2018 Inria
+ *
+ * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public
+ * License v2. See the file LICENSE for more details.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @file
+ * @brief Header generation tool for RIOT firmware images
+ *
+ * @author Francisco Acosta <francisco.acosta@inria.fr>
+ * @author Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
+ */
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <string.h>
+
+int genhdr(int argc, char *argv[]);
+
+int main(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+ char *usage = "genhdr generate [args]";
+
+ if (argc < 2) {
+ goto usage;
+ }
+ else if (!strcmp(argv[1], "generate")) {
+ return genhdr(argc - 1, &argv[1]);
+ }
+
+usage:
+ fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s\n", usage);
+ return 1;
+}