Password history module does not insert password hash sometimes

Problem/Motivation

Given that the password history constraint is added to a policy, when creating a new user outside the user add form (e.g. during a webtest using drupalCreateUser(), or potentially other methods that do not use the UI), the password hash is not inserted in the database for the user. I suspect the same issue would occur when updating user passwords through means not using the UI, since it's looking for specific $_POST variables.

Proposed resolution

Add a check during the insert password hash function to allow the hash to be set (e.g. ignore if $_POST variables are set) when users are new (perhaps adding a second boolean argument to indicate when a user is new). As for updating the user password outside of the UI, I haven't run into that particular use case, so I don't have any suggestions for that.

Remaining tasks

Discuss, write a patch.

User interface changes

None.

API changes

None.

Data model changes

None.