diff --git a/r2/r2/lib/tracking.py b/r2/r2/lib/tracking.py
index 0e1ee5b35..38c72d259 100644
--- a/r2/r2/lib/tracking.py
+++ b/r2/r2/lib/tracking.py
@@ -66,9 +66,9 @@ def _unpad_message(text):
     return unpadded
 
 
-def _make_cipher(initialization_vector):
+def _make_cipher(initialization_vector, secret):
     """Return a block cipher object for use in `encrypt` and `decrypt`."""
-    return AES.new(g.tracking_secret[:KEY_SIZE], AES.MODE_CBC,
+    return AES.new(secret[:KEY_SIZE], AES.MODE_CBC,
                    initialization_vector[:AES.block_size])
 
 
@@ -83,15 +83,22 @@ def encrypt(plaintext):
 
     """
 
+    salt = _make_salt()
+    return _encrypt(salt, plaintext, g.tracking_secret)
+
+
+def _make_salt():
     # we want SALT_SIZE letters of salt text, but we're generating random bytes
     # so we'll calculate how many bytes we need to get SALT_SIZE characters of
     # base64 output. because of padding, this only works for SALT_SIZE % 4 == 0
     assert SALT_SIZE % 4 == 0
     salt_byte_count = (SALT_SIZE / 4) * 3
-
     salt_bytes = get_random_bytes(salt_byte_count)
-    salt = base64.b64encode(salt_bytes)
-    cipher = _make_cipher(salt)
+    return base64.b64encode(salt_bytes)
+
+
+def _encrypt(salt, plaintext, secret):
+    cipher = _make_cipher(salt, secret)
 
     padded = _pad_message(plaintext)
     ciphertext = cipher.encrypt(padded)
@@ -107,10 +114,14 @@ def decrypt(encrypted):
 
     """
 
+    return _decrypt(encrypted, g.tracking_secret)
+
+
+def _decrypt(encrypted, secret):
     encrypted = urllib.unquote_plus(encrypted)
     salt, encoded = encrypted[:SALT_SIZE], encrypted[SALT_SIZE:]
     ciphertext = base64.b64decode(encoded)
-    cipher = _make_cipher(salt)
+    cipher = _make_cipher(salt, secret)
     padded = cipher.decrypt(ciphertext)
     return _unpad_message(padded)
 
diff --git a/r2/r2/tests/unit/lib/tracking_test.py b/r2/r2/tests/unit/lib/tracking_test.py
index a525a3017..98866e85b 100644
--- a/r2/r2/tests/unit/lib/tracking_test.py
+++ b/r2/r2/tests/unit/lib/tracking_test.py
@@ -22,41 +22,59 @@
 
 import unittest
 
-from r2.lib import tracking
-from r2.tests import RedditTestCase
 
-
-KEY_SIZE = tracking.KEY_SIZE
 MESSAGE = "the quick brown fox jumped over..."
 BLOCK_O_PADDING = ("\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10"
                    "\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10\x10")
+SECRET = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
+ENCRYPTED = ("aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaIbzth1QTzJxzHbHGnJywG5V1uR3tWtSB"
+             "8hTyIcfg6rUZC4Wo0pT8jkEt9o1c%2FkTn")
 
 
 class TestPadding(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_pad_empty_string(self):
-        padded = tracking._pad_message("")
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _pad_message
+        padded = _pad_message("")
         self.assertEquals(padded, BLOCK_O_PADDING)
 
     def test_pad_round_string(self):
-        padded = tracking._pad_message("x" * KEY_SIZE)
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _pad_message, KEY_SIZE
+        padded = _pad_message("x" * KEY_SIZE)
         self.assertEquals(len(padded), KEY_SIZE * 2)
         self.assertEquals(padded[KEY_SIZE:], BLOCK_O_PADDING)
 
     def test_unpad_empty_message(self):
-        unpadded = tracking._unpad_message("")
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _unpad_message
+        unpadded = _unpad_message("")
         self.assertEquals(unpadded, "")
 
     def test_unpad_evil_message(self):
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _unpad_message
         evil = ("a" * 88) + chr(57)
-        result = tracking._unpad_message(evil)
+        result = _unpad_message(evil)
         self.assertEquals(result, "")
 
     def test_padding_roundtrip(self):
-        tested = tracking._unpad_message(tracking._pad_message(MESSAGE))
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _unpad_message, _pad_message
+        tested = _unpad_message(_pad_message(MESSAGE))
         self.assertEquals(MESSAGE, tested)
 
 
-class TestEncryption(RedditTestCase):
-    def test_encryption_roundtrip(self):
-        tested = tracking.decrypt(tracking.encrypt(MESSAGE))
-        self.assertEquals(MESSAGE, tested)
+class TestEncryption(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_salt(self):
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _make_salt, SALT_SIZE
+        self.assertEquals(len(_make_salt()), SALT_SIZE)
+
+    def test_encrypt(self):
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _encrypt, SALT_SIZE
+        encrypted = _encrypt(
+            "a" * SALT_SIZE,
+            MESSAGE,
+            SECRET,
+        )
+        self.assertEquals(encrypted, ENCRYPTED)
+
+    def test_decrypt(self):
+        from r2.lib.tracking import _decrypt
+        decrypted = _decrypt(ENCRYPTED, SECRET)
+        self.assertEquals(MESSAGE, decrypted)