Index: passlib-1.7.4/passlib/pwd.py
===================================================================
--- passlib-1.7.4.orig/passlib/pwd.py
+++ passlib-1.7.4/passlib/pwd.py
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@ except ImportError:
     from collections import MutableMapping
 from math import ceil, log as logf
 import logging; log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
-import pkg_resources
 import os
+import sys
 # site
 # pkg
 from passlib import exc
@@ -122,7 +122,14 @@ def _open_asset_path(path, encoding=None
     if not sep:
         raise ValueError("asset path must be absolute file path "
                          "or use 'pkg.name:sub/path' format: %r" % (path,))
-    return pkg_resources.resource_stream(package, subpath)
+    if sys.version_info >= (3, 9):
+        # We can use the new and shiny importlib.resources
+        import importlib.resources
+        return importlib.resources.files(package).joinpath(subpath).open('rb')
+    else:
+        # Fallback to pkg_resources
+        import pkg_resources
+        return pkg_resources.resource_stream(package, subpath)
 
 
 #: type aliases