diff --git a/src/utils.py b/src/utils.py
index a34c9a009..bf87ce4d0 100755
--- a/src/utils.py
+++ b/src/utils.py
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ import fix
 
 import os
 import re
+import md5
+import sha
 import string
 import sgmllib
 import textwrap
@@ -403,6 +405,15 @@ def flatten(seq, strings=False):
             except TypeError:
                 yield elt
 
+def saltHash(password, salt=None, hash='sha'):
+    if salt is None:
+        salt = mktemp()[:8]
+    if hash == 'md5':
+        hasher = md5.md5
+    elif hash == 'sha':
+        hasher = sha.sha
+    return salt + hasher(salt + password).hexdigest()
+
 class IterableMap(object):
     """Define .iteritems() in a class and subclass this to get the other iters.
     """
diff --git a/test/test_utils.py b/test/test_utils.py
index cbd28ab2f..4d3ecc417 100644
--- a/test/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/test_utils.py
@@ -275,6 +275,10 @@ class UtilsTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.failUnless(len(f('x'*35, 30)) <= 30)
         self.failUnless(f(' '.join(['xxxx']*10), 30)[:-3].endswith('xxxx'))
 
+    def testSaltHash(self):
+        s = utils.saltHash('jemfinch')
+        self.assertEqual(utils.saltHash('jemfinch', salt=s[:8]), s)
+