diff --git a/common/cmd_sandbox.c b/common/cmd_sandbox.c
index 00982b164dd3c41e562fadffa0adf522c8841e66..3d9fce7e554883f8dbb6b886d17420704f2f8a03 100644
--- a/common/cmd_sandbox.c
+++ b/common/cmd_sandbox.c
@@ -114,11 +114,13 @@ static int do_sandbox(cmd_tbl_t *cmdtp, int flag, int argc,
 U_BOOT_CMD(
 	sb,	8,	1,	do_sandbox,
 	"Miscellaneous sandbox commands",
-	"load host <dev> <addr> <filename> [<bytes> <offset>]  - "
+	"load hostfs - <addr> <filename> [<bytes> <offset>]  - "
 		"load a file from host\n"
-	"sb ls host <filename>                      - list files on host\n"
-	"sb save host <dev> <filename> <addr> <bytes> [<offset>] - "
+	"sb ls hostfs - <filename>                    - list files on host\n"
+	"sb save hostfs - <filename> <addr> <bytes> [<offset>] - "
 		"save a file to host\n"
 	"sb bind <dev> [<filename>] - bind \"host\" device to file\n"
-	"sb info [<dev>]            - show device binding & info"
+	"sb info [<dev>]            - show device binding & info\n"
+	"sb commands use the \"hostfs\" device. The \"host\" device is used\n"
+	"with standard IO commands such as fatls or ext2load"
 );
diff --git a/disk/part.c b/disk/part.c
index b3097e32f0eb0a14bb356f21d816abb39e78ca72..baceb19c60c7212c215e69eaba0be55d3f720170 100644
--- a/disk/part.c
+++ b/disk/part.c
@@ -510,6 +510,25 @@ int get_device_and_partition(const char *ifname, const char *dev_part_str,
 	int part;
 	disk_partition_t tmpinfo;
 
+	/*
+	 * Special-case a psuedo block device "hostfs", to allow access to the
+	 * host's own filesystem.
+	 */
+	if (0 == strcmp(ifname, "hostfs")) {
+		*dev_desc = NULL;
+		info->start = 0;
+		info->size = 0;
+		info->blksz = 0;
+		info->bootable = 0;
+		strcpy((char *)info->type, BOOT_PART_TYPE);
+		strcpy((char *)info->name, "Sandbox host");
+#ifdef CONFIG_PARTITION_UUIDS
+		info->uuid[0] = 0;
+#endif
+
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	/* If no dev_part_str, use bootdevice environment variable */
 	if (!dev_part_str || !strlen(dev_part_str) ||
 	    !strcmp(dev_part_str, "-"))
diff --git a/test/command_ut.c b/test/command_ut.c
index b2666bfc182b7641d6d2b8130e5c17f868015d83..ae6466d0ed8340fc64d833bdf29a618896e80d04 100644
--- a/test/command_ut.c
+++ b/test/command_ut.c
@@ -165,12 +165,12 @@ static int do_ut_cmd(cmd_tbl_t *cmdtp, int flag, int argc, char * const argv[])
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_SANDBOX
 	/* File existence */
-	HUSH_TEST(e, "-e host - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test", n);
-	run_command("sb save host - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test 0 1", 0);
-	HUSH_TEST(e, "-e host - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test", y);
+	HUSH_TEST(e, "-e hostfs - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test", n);
+	run_command("sb save hostfs - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test 0 1", 0);
+	HUSH_TEST(e, "-e hostfs - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test", y);
 	/* Perhaps this could be replaced by an "rm" shell command one day */
 	assert(!os_unlink("creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test"));
-	HUSH_TEST(e, "-e host - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test", n);
+	HUSH_TEST(e, "-e hostfs - creating_this_file_breaks_uboot_unit_test", n);
 #endif
 #endif
 
diff --git a/test/vboot/vboot_test.sh b/test/vboot/vboot_test.sh
index cc67bed2e236bca236c8c53dfcee477b7274b2ea..8074fc6adc0708c984297c2172ad41ded4f0995e 100755
--- a/test/vboot/vboot_test.sh
+++ b/test/vboot/vboot_test.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ set -e
 run_uboot() {
 	echo -n "Test Verified Boot Run: $1: "
 	${uboot} -d sandbox-u-boot.dtb >${tmp} -c '
-sb load host 0 100 test.fit;
+sb load hostfs - 100 test.fit;
 fdt addr 100;
 bootm 100;
 reset'