diff --git a/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/SASLMechanism.java b/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/SASLMechanism.java
index 1c92b35bc..08e136884 100644
--- a/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/SASLMechanism.java
+++ b/smack-core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/SASLMechanism.java
@@ -244,4 +244,8 @@ public abstract class SASLMechanism implements Comparable<SASLMechanism> {
     }
 
     protected abstract SASLMechanism newInstance();
+
+    protected static byte[] toBytes(String string) {
+        return StringUtils.toBytes(string);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/smack-sasl-provided/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/provided/SASLDigestMD5Mechanism.java b/smack-sasl-provided/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/provided/SASLDigestMD5Mechanism.java
index b0490caea..3181948cf 100644
--- a/smack-sasl-provided/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/provided/SASLDigestMD5Mechanism.java
+++ b/smack-sasl-provided/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/sasl/provided/SASLDigestMD5Mechanism.java
@@ -200,7 +200,4 @@ public class SASLDigestMD5Mechanism extends SASLMechanism {
         return responseValue;
     }
 
-    private static byte[] toBytes(String string) {
-        return StringUtils.toBytes(string);
-    }
 }