diff --git a/lib/SimpleSAML/Utilities.php b/lib/SimpleSAML/Utilities.php
index 8cf4d9318edccf6ac8f894dc821f51be0d120fbe..2ab85f34ca815c61cb4ef39de66d9543dc86ba5d 100644
--- a/lib/SimpleSAML/Utilities.php
+++ b/lib/SimpleSAML/Utilities.php
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ class SimpleSAML_Utilities {
 	/**
 	 * @deprecated This method will be removed in version 2.0. Use SimpleSAML\Utils\Net::ipCIDRcheck() instead.
 	 */
-	static function ipCIDRcheck($cidr, $ip = null) {
+	public static function ipCIDRcheck($cidr, $ip = null) {
 		return SimpleSAML\Utils\Net::ipCIDRcheck($cidr, $ip);
 	}