#NEWLINE# @ classmethod #NEWLINE# def _salt( cls , length = 12 ) : #NEWLINE# #INDENT# "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography)\n        Salting results in the generation of random padding of a\n        specified 'length' (12 default) which can be prepended or\n        appended to a password prior to hashing to increase security\n        and prevent against various brute force attacks, such as\n        rainbow-table lookups." #NEWLINE# return '' . join ( [ random . choice ( ALPHAS ) for i in range ( length ) ] )