old_contents: import hashlib
  import os
  import string
  import random
  
  from django.conf import settings
  
  def hasher(string):
      '''Helper method to hash a string to SHA512'''
      h = hashlib.sha512(settings.SECRET_KEY + string).hexdigest()
      for _ in range(settings.HASH_PASSES):
          h = hashlib.sha512(h).hexdigest()
      return h
  
  def get_random_string(length, set=string.ascii_letters+string.digits):
      '''Gets a random string'''
      return ''.join(random.choice(set) for _ in range(length))
  
new_contents: import hashlib
  import os
  import string
  import random
  
  from django.conf import settings
  
  def hasher(string):
      '''Helper method to hash a string to SHA512'''
      h = hashlib.sha512(settings.SECRET_KEY + string.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()
      for _ in range(settings.HASH_PASSES):
          h = hashlib.sha512(h).hexdigest()
      return h
  
  def get_random_string(length, set=string.ascii_letters+string.digits):
      '''Gets a random string'''
      return ''.join(random.choice(set) for _ in range(length))
  
subject: Make the password hashing unicode safe.