Presented herein are systems and methods to determine whether a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server in DHCP snooping environment is a trusted device without requiring trusted port configuration. In one or more embodiments, a DHCP snooping-enable switch/router adds an indicator to a message intended for a DHCP server, thereby notifying the DHCP server that the DHCP switch/router is enabled for or capable of “detection of trusted DHCP server.” The DHCP server includes a unique trusted identifier in its reply that the DHCP switch/router uses to verify whether the DHCP server can be considered a trusted device.