diff --git a/lemur/auth/views.py b/lemur/auth/views.py
index 1316810a..40f6c032 100644
--- a/lemur/auth/views.py
+++ b/lemur/auth/views.py
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ class Providers(Resource):
     def get(self):
         active_providers = []
 
-        for provider in current_app.config.get("ACTIVE_PROVIDERS"):
+        for provider in current_app.config.get("ACTIVE_PROVIDERS", []):
             provider = provider.lower()
 
             if provider == "google":
diff --git a/lemur/users/models.py b/lemur/users/models.py
index c859a36e..b513f1a9 100644
--- a/lemur/users/models.py
+++ b/lemur/users/models.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 .. moduleauthor:: Kevin Glisson <kglisson@netflix.com>
 """
+import sys
 from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship
 from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer, String, Boolean, DateTime
 from sqlalchemy.event import listen
@@ -62,7 +63,10 @@ class User(db.Model):
         :return:
         """
         if self.password:
-            self.password = bcrypt.generate_password_hash(self.password)
+            if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
+                self.password = bcrypt.generate_password_hash(self.password).decode('utf-8')
+            else:
+                self.password = bcrypt.generate_password_hash(self.password)
             return self.password
 
     @property
diff --git a/lemur/utils.py b/lemur/utils.py
index 700ba6bf..47b25f35 100644
--- a/lemur/utils.py
+++ b/lemur/utils.py
@@ -54,11 +54,7 @@ def get_keys():
 
     # when running lemur create_config, this code needs to work despite
     # the fact that there is not a current_app with a config at that point
-    try:
-        keys = current_app.config.get('LEMUR_ENCRYPTION_KEYS')
-    except Exception:
-        print("no encryption keys")
-        return []
+    keys = current_app.config.get('LEMUR_ENCRYPTION_KEYS', [])
 
     # this function is expected to return a list of keys, but we want
     # to let people just specify a single key