diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 09179f2640..34c617d89f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ and provided directly the IAVL store.
 * (types) [\#5533](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5533) Refactored `AppModuleBasic` and `AppModuleGenesis`
 to now accept a `codec.JSONMarshaler` for modular serialization of genesis state.
 
+### Features
+
+* (x/ibc) [\#5588](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5588) Add [ICS 024 - Host State Machine Requirements](https://github.com/cosmos/ics/tree/master/spec/ics-024-host-requirements) subpackage to `x/ibc` module.
+
 ### Bug Fixes
 
 * (client) [\#5618](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5618) Fix crash on the client when the verifier is not set.
diff --git a/types/router.go b/types/router.go
index f3593f5530..12d0455f80 100644
--- a/types/router.go
+++ b/types/router.go
@@ -2,9 +2,27 @@ package types
 
 import "regexp"
 
-// IsAlphaNumeric defines a regular expression for matching against alpha-numeric
-// values.
-var IsAlphaNumeric = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$`).MatchString
+var (
+	// IsAlphaNumeric defines a regular expression for matching against alpha-numeric
+	// values.
+	IsAlphaNumeric = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$`).MatchString
+
+	// IsAlphaLower defines regular expression to check if the string has lowercase
+	// alphabetic characters only.
+	IsAlphaLower = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-z]+$`).MatchString
+
+	// IsAlphaUpper defines regular expression to check if the string has uppercase
+	// alphabetic characters only.
+	IsAlphaUpper = regexp.MustCompile(`^[A-Z]+$`).MatchString
+
+	// IsAlpha defines regular expression to check if the string has alphabetic
+	// characters only.
+	IsAlpha = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-zA-Z]+$`).MatchString
+
+	// IsNumeric defines regular expression to check if the string has numeric
+	// characters only.
+	IsNumeric = regexp.MustCompile(`^[0-9]+$`).MatchString
+)
 
 // Router provides handlers for each transaction type.
 type Router interface {
diff --git a/x/ibc/24-host/errors.go b/x/ibc/24-host/errors.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..26b7919e6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/x/ibc/24-host/errors.go
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package host
+
+import (
+	sdkerrors "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types/errors"
+)
+
+// SubModuleName defines the ICS 24 host
+const SubModuleName = "host"
+
+// IBC client sentinel errors
+var (
+	ErrInvalidID     = sdkerrors.Register(SubModuleName, 1, "invalid identifier")
+	ErrInvalidPath   = sdkerrors.Register(SubModuleName, 2, "invalid path")
+	ErrInvalidPacket = sdkerrors.Register(SubModuleName, 3, "invalid packet")
+)
diff --git a/x/ibc/24-host/utils.go b/x/ibc/24-host/utils.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c75f356561
--- /dev/null
+++ b/x/ibc/24-host/utils.go
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+package host
+
+// RemovePath is an util function to remove a path from a set.
+func RemovePath(paths []string, path string) ([]string, bool) {
+	for i, p := range paths {
+		if p == path {
+			return append(paths[:i], paths[i+1:]...), true
+		}
+	}
+	return paths, false
+}
diff --git a/x/ibc/24-host/validate.go b/x/ibc/24-host/validate.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e75e63e6c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/x/ibc/24-host/validate.go
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+package host
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+
+	sdk "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types"
+	sdkerrors "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types/errors"
+)
+
+// ICS 024 Identifier and Path Validation Implementation
+//
+// This file defines ValidateFn to validate identifier and path strings
+// The spec for ICS 024 can be located here:
+// https://github.com/cosmos/ics/tree/master/spec/ics-024-host-requirements
+
+// ValidateFn function type to validate path and identifier bytestrings
+type ValidateFn func(string) error
+
+func defaultIdentifierValidator(id string, min, max int) error {
+	// valid id MUST NOT contain "/" separator
+	if strings.Contains(id, "/") {
+		return sdkerrors.Wrapf(ErrInvalidID, "identifier %s cannot contain separator '/'", id)
+	}
+	// valid id must be between 10 and 20 characters
+	if len(id) < min || len(id) > max {
+		return sdkerrors.Wrapf(ErrInvalidID, "identifier %s has invalid length: %d, must be between %d-%d characters", id, len(id), min, max)
+	}
+	// valid id must contain only lower alphabetic characters
+	if !sdk.IsAlphaLower(id) {
+		return sdkerrors.Wrapf(ErrInvalidID, "identifier %s must contain only lowercase alphabetic characters", id)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// DefaultClientIdentifierValidator is the default validator function for Client identifiers
+// A valid Identifier must be between 10-20 characters and only contain lowercase
+// alphabetic characters,
+func DefaultClientIdentifierValidator(id string) error {
+	return defaultIdentifierValidator(id, 10, 20)
+}
+
+// DefaultConnectionIdentifierValidator is the default validator function for Connection identifiers
+// A valid Identifier must be between 10-20 characters and only contain lowercase
+// alphabetic characters,
+func DefaultConnectionIdentifierValidator(id string) error {
+	return defaultIdentifierValidator(id, 10, 20)
+}
+
+// DefaultChannelIdentifierValidator is the default validator function for Channel identifiers
+// A valid Identifier must be between 10-20 characters and only contain lowercase
+// alphabetic characters,
+func DefaultChannelIdentifierValidator(id string) error {
+	return defaultIdentifierValidator(id, 10, 20)
+}
+
+// DefaultPortIdentifierValidator is the default validator function for Port identifiers
+// A valid Identifier must be between 2-20 characters and only contain lowercase
+// alphabetic characters,
+func DefaultPortIdentifierValidator(id string) error {
+	return defaultIdentifierValidator(id, 2, 20)
+}
+
+// NewPathValidator takes in a Identifier Validator function and returns
+// a Path Validator function which requires path only has valid identifiers
+// alphanumeric character strings, and "/" separators
+func NewPathValidator(idValidator ValidateFn) ValidateFn {
+	return func(path string) error {
+		pathArr := strings.Split(path, "/")
+		for _, p := range pathArr {
+			// Each path element must either be valid identifier or alphanumeric
+			err := idValidator(p)
+			if err != nil && !sdk.IsAlphaNumeric(p) {
+				return sdkerrors.Wrapf(ErrInvalidPath, "path %s contains invalid identifier or non-alphanumeric path element: %s", path, p)
+			}
+		}
+		return nil
+	}
+}
+
+// DefaultPathValidator takes in path string and validates
+// with default identifier rules. This is optimized by simply
+// checking that all path elements are alphanumeric
+func DefaultPathValidator(path string) error {
+	pathArr := strings.Split(path, "/")
+	if pathArr[0] == path {
+		return sdkerrors.Wrapf(ErrInvalidPath, "path %s doesn't contain any separator '/'", path)
+	}
+
+	for _, p := range pathArr {
+		// Each path element must be alphanumeric and non-blank
+		if strings.TrimSpace(p) == "" || !sdk.IsAlphaNumeric(p) {
+			return sdkerrors.Wrapf(ErrInvalidPath, "path %s contains an invalid non-alphanumeric character: '%s'", path, p)
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}