diff --git a/alts/src/main/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannel.java b/alts/src/main/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannel.java
index f03cc6f8c94..eea6352da8e 100644
--- a/alts/src/main/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannel.java
+++ b/alts/src/main/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannel.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 
 package io.grpc.alts;
 
-import com.google.common.base.MoreObjects;
 import io.grpc.CallOptions;
 import io.grpc.Channel;
 import io.grpc.ClientCall;
@@ -38,13 +37,25 @@
  * application will have at most one connection to the handshaker service.
  */
 final class HandshakerServiceChannel {
+  
+  private static final int ALTS_PORT = 8080;
+  private static final String DEFAULT_TARGET = "metadata.google.internal.:8080";
 
   static final Resource<Channel> SHARED_HANDSHAKER_CHANNEL =
-      new ChannelResource(
-          MoreObjects.firstNonNull(
-              System.getenv("GCE_METADATA_HOST"), "metadata.google.internal.:8080"));
-
-
+      new ChannelResource(getHandshakerTarget(System.getenv("GCE_METADATA_HOST")));
+ 
+  static String getHandshakerTarget(String envValue) {
+    if (envValue == null || envValue.isEmpty()) {
+      return DEFAULT_TARGET;
+    }
+    String host = envValue;
+    int portIndex = host.lastIndexOf(':');
+    if (portIndex != -1) {
+      host = host.substring(0, portIndex);
+    }
+    return host + ":" + ALTS_PORT;
+  }
+  
   /** Returns a resource of handshaker service channel for testing only. */
   static Resource<Channel> getHandshakerChannelForTesting(String handshakerAddress) {
     return new ChannelResource(handshakerAddress);
diff --git a/alts/src/test/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannelTest.java b/alts/src/test/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannelTest.java
index a3937904cd7..221001157f1 100644
--- a/alts/src/test/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannelTest.java
+++ b/alts/src/test/java/io/grpc/alts/HandshakerServiceChannelTest.java
@@ -67,6 +67,24 @@ public void sharedChannel_authority() {
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void getHandshakerTarget_nullEnvVar() {
+    assertThat(HandshakerServiceChannel.getHandshakerTarget(null))
+        .isEqualTo("metadata.google.internal.:8080");
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void getHandshakerTarget_envVarWithPort() {
+    assertThat(HandshakerServiceChannel.getHandshakerTarget("169.254.169.254:80"))
+        .isEqualTo("169.254.169.254:8080");
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void getHandshakerTarget_envVarWithHostOnly() {
+    assertThat(HandshakerServiceChannel.getHandshakerTarget("169.254.169.254"))
+        .isEqualTo("169.254.169.254:8080");
+  }
+  
   @Test
   public void resource_works() {
     Channel channel = resource.create();