1 files changed, 5 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/synapse/handlers/auth.py b/synapse/handlers/auth.py
index 4a81bd2ba9..2a5eab124f 100644
--- a/synapse/handlers/auth.py
+++ b/synapse/handlers/auth.py
@@ -895,22 +895,24 @@ class AuthHandler(BaseHandler):
 
         Args:
             password (unicode): Password to hash.
-            stored_hash (unicode): Expected hash value.
+            stored_hash (bytes): Expected hash value.
 
         Returns:
             Deferred(bool): Whether self.hash(password) == stored_hash.
         """
-
         def _do_validate_hash():
             # Normalise the Unicode in the password
             pw = unicodedata.normalize("NFKC", password)
 
             return bcrypt.checkpw(
                 pw.encode('utf8') + self.hs.config.password_pepper.encode("utf8"),
-                stored_hash.encode('utf8')
+                stored_hash
             )
 
         if stored_hash:
+            if not isinstance(stored_hash, bytes):
+                stored_hash = stored_hash.encode('ascii')
+
             return make_deferred_yieldable(
                 threads.deferToThreadPool(
                     self.hs.get_reactor(),