Python example of how to create a salt and use a secret key to generate a signature using the salt

salt_signature.py

import hmac
import os
import hashlib
import base64
import unittest
__author__ = 'drem'


class SecurityUtil(object):

  @staticmethod
  def generate_salt():
      salt = os.urandom(16)
      return str(base64.b64encode(salt))

  @staticmethod
  def generate_signature(salt, secret_key):
      dig = hmac.new(secret_key, salt, hashlib.sha256).digest()
      signature = base64.b64encode(dig)
      return signature


class TestSecurityUtil(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_generate_salt(self):
        salt = SecurityUtil.generate_salt()
        self.assertNotEqual(None, salt)
        print "Salt: " + salt
        print

    def test_generate_signature(self):
        salt = SecurityUtil.generate_salt()
        print "Salt: " + salt
        signature = SecurityUtil.generate_signature(salt, "secretKey")
        self.assertNotEqual(None, signature)
        print "Signature: " + signature
        print

    def test_signatures_equal(self):
        salt = SecurityUtil.generate_salt()
        print "Salt: " + salt
        signature1 = SecurityUtil.generate_signature(salt, "secretKey")
        self.assertNotEqual(None, signature1)
        print "Signature1: " + signature1
        signature2 = SecurityUtil.generate_signature(salt, "secretKey")
        self.assertNotEqual(None, signature2)
        print "Signature2: " + signature2
        print
        self.assertEqual(signature1, signature2)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

Python 3.6 implementation can be found here: https://gist.github.com/drem-darios/2622dffe0642054be71dcbaa62ea8491