diff --git a/packer/config_template.go b/packer/config_template.go
index 354208cbc..5a8e48d1e 100644
--- a/packer/config_template.go
+++ b/packer/config_template.go
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ package packer
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"cgl.tideland.biz/identifier"
+	"encoding/hex"
 	"fmt"
 	"strconv"
 	"text/template"
@@ -28,6 +30,7 @@ func NewConfigTemplate() (*ConfigTemplate, error) {
 	result.root.Funcs(template.FuncMap{
 		"timestamp": templateTimestamp,
 		"user":      result.templateUser,
+		"uuid":      templateUuid,
 	})
 
 	return result, nil
@@ -79,3 +82,7 @@ func (t *ConfigTemplate) templateUser(n string) (string, error) {
 func templateTimestamp() string {
 	return strconv.FormatInt(time.Now().UTC().Unix(), 10)
 }
+
+func templateUuid() string {
+	return hex.EncodeToString(identifier.NewUUID().Raw())
+}
diff --git a/packer/config_template_test.go b/packer/config_template_test.go
index 4c4864cda..fed328922 100644
--- a/packer/config_template_test.go
+++ b/packer/config_template_test.go
@@ -47,6 +47,22 @@ func TestConfigTemplateProcess_user(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestConfigTemplateProcess_uuid(t *testing.T) {
+	tpl, err := NewConfigTemplate()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	result, err := tpl.Process(`{{uuid}}`, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	if len(result) != 32 {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", result)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestConfigTemplateValidate(t *testing.T) {
 	tpl, err := NewConfigTemplate()
 	if err != nil {