diff --git a/atom.gyp b/atom.gyp
index 2142819702ed..bccb001cb53a 100644
--- a/atom.gyp
+++ b/atom.gyp
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
       'atom/common/api/lib/clipboard.coffee',
       'atom/common/api/lib/crash-reporter.coffee',
       'atom/common/api/lib/id-weak-map.coffee',
+      'atom/common/api/lib/original-fs.coffee',
       'atom/common/api/lib/screen.coffee',
       'atom/common/api/lib/shell.coffee',
       'atom/common/lib/init.coffee',
diff --git a/atom/common/api/lib/original-fs.coffee b/atom/common/api/lib/original-fs.coffee
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5aefb357402d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/atom/common/api/lib/original-fs.coffee
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+fs = require 'fs'
+
+copied = {}
+copied[k] = v for k, v of fs
+
+module.exports = copied
diff --git a/atom/common/lib/init.coffee b/atom/common/lib/init.coffee
index b8d67355c05f..19c0ee986bc8 100644
--- a/atom/common/lib/init.coffee
+++ b/atom/common/lib/init.coffee
@@ -35,5 +35,8 @@ if process.type is 'browser'
   global.setTimeout = wrapWithActivateUvLoop timers.setTimeout
   global.setInterval = wrapWithActivateUvLoop timers.setInterval
 
+# Initialize the "original-fs" module before asar support is loaded.
+require 'original-fs'
+
 # Add support for asar packages.
 require './asar'
diff --git a/docs/tutorial/application-packaging.md b/docs/tutorial/application-packaging.md
index 423162443fd7..a2dd5dabca15 100644
--- a/docs/tutorial/application-packaging.md
+++ b/docs/tutorial/application-packaging.md
@@ -95,6 +95,17 @@ var win = new BrowserWindow({width: 800, height: 600});
 win.loadUrl('asar:/path/to/example.asar/static/index.html');
 ```
 
+### Treating `asar` archive as normal file
+
+For some cases like verifying the `asar` archive's checksum, we need to read the
+content of `asar` archive as file. For this purpose you can use the built-in
+`original-fs` module which provides original `fs` APIs without `asar` support:
+
+```javascript
+var originalFs = require('original-fs');
+originalFs.readFileSync('/path/to/example.asar');
+```
+
 ## Limitations on Node API
 
 Even though we tried hard to make `asar` archives in the Node API work like
diff --git a/spec/asar-spec.coffee b/spec/asar-spec.coffee
index 12cbff7989ae..b48394f8e21d 100644
--- a/spec/asar-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/asar-spec.coffee
@@ -391,3 +391,17 @@ describe 'asar package', ->
       ipc.on 'dirname', (event, dirname) ->
         assert.equal dirname, path.dirname(p)
         done()
+
+  describe 'original-fs module', ->
+    originalFs = require 'original-fs'
+
+    it 'uses the original fs api', ->
+      changedApis = ['readFile', 'stat', 'lstat', 'realpath', 'exists']
+      unchangedApis = ['read', 'write', 'writeFile', 'close']
+      assert.notStrictEqual fs[api], originalFs[api] for api in changedApis
+      assert.strictEqual fs[api], originalFs[api] for api in unchangedApis
+
+    it 'treats .asar as file', ->
+      file = path.join fixtures, 'asar', 'a.asar'
+      stats = originalFs.statSync file
+      assert stats.isFile()