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Adding the ability for getpass to print asterisks when password is typed #77065
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MatanyaStroh commented
on Feb 20, 2018 MatanyaStrohmannequinMannequinAuthorI saw some questions about it in stackoverflow (links below), and also find it very useful to have the ability to print asterisks.
Some users, find it disturbing when they don't have any indication that password is typed, and it will be helpful to have it.I know that it's have some risks exposing the number of chars to the password, but I think it's worth it.
When using Jupyter (notebook server is 4.3.1) the password does echoed as "*", but not in Python IDE in linux and Windows
MatanyaStroh commented
on Feb 22, 2018 MatanyaStrohmannequinMannequinAuthorfor getpass.win_getpass() it can simply be done by adding this line
msvcrt.putch("*").
So the code will look like:def win_getpass(prompt='Password: ', stream=None): """Prompt for password with echo off, using Windows getch().""" if sys.stdin is not sys.__stdin__: return fallback_getpass(prompt, stream) for c in prompt: msvcrt.putwch(c) pw = "" while 1: c = msvcrt.getwch() if c == '\r' or c == '\n': break if c == '\003': raise KeyboardInterrupt if c == '\b': pw = pw[:-1] else: pw = pw + c msvcrt.putch("*") #Line that was added msvcrt.putwch('\r') msvcrt.putwch('\n') return pw
getpass is emulating the unix password prompt behavior. I'm not sure if the complication is worth it, especially since not echoing asterisks is, as you observe, fractionally more secure. So I guess I'm about -.5 on this feature.
stevoisiak commented
on Apr 9, 2019 stevoisiakmannequinMannequin@matanya.stroh: Don't forget to erase the asterisks if the user hits backspace.
def win_getpass(prompt='Password: ', stream=None, show_asterisks=False): """Prompt for password with echo off, using Windows getch().""" if sys.stdin is not sys.__stdin__: return fallback_getpass(prompt, stream) for c in prompt: msvcrt.putwch(c) pw = "" while 1: c = msvcrt.getwch() if c == '\r' or c == '\n': break if c == '\003': raise KeyboardInterrupt if c == '\b': if len(pw) > 0: pw = pw[:-1] msvcrt.putwch('\b') msvcrt.putwch(' ') msvcrt.putwch('\b') else: pw = pw + c if show_asterisks: msvcrt.putwch('*') msvcrt.putwch('\r') msvcrt.putwch('\n') return pwAlternatively, could let the user define the masking character, similar to Tkinter's Entry widget.
def win_getpass(prompt='Password: ', stream=None, mask=''): """Prompt for password with echo off, using Windows getch().""" if sys.stdin is not sys.__stdin__: return fallback_getpass(prompt, stream) if len(mask) > 1: raise TypeError('mask argument must be a zero- or one-character str') for c in prompt: msvcrt.putwch(c) pw = "" while 1: c = msvcrt.getwch() if c == '\r' or c == '\n': break if c == '\003': raise KeyboardInterrupt if c == '\b': if len(pw) > 0: pw = pw[:-1] msvcrt.putwch('\b') msvcrt.putwch(' ') msvcrt.putwch('\b') else: pw = pw + c if mask: msvcrt.putwch(mask) msvcrt.putwch('\r') msvcrt.putwch('\n') return pwI'm in favor of supporting masking. While it does reveal the password length, it's an accessibility feature many users have come to expect.
I'd rather have this in the standard library than have developers implement their own custom, potentially insecure methods for password input.
Reacted by Michael BearSee also bpo-36566. (Thanks Cheryl.)
I think the usability improvement for this far outweigh the decrease in security.
The days where somebody looking over your shoulder watching you type your password was the major threat are long gone. Hiding the length of the password against a shoulder-surfing adversary is so-1970s :-)
For old-school Unix types we ought to default to hiding the password. But I'm +1 in allowing developers to choose to trade off a tiny decrease in security against a major increase in usability.
The bottom line is that if you have a weak password, hiding the length won't save you; if you have a strong password, hiding the length doesn't add any appreciable difficulty to the attacker.
- changed the title
[-]Adding the ability for getpass to print asterisks when passowrd is typed[/-][+]Adding the ability for getpass to print asterisks when password is typed[/+]on Jun 10, 2019 websurfer5 commented
on Aug 8, 2020 websurfer5mannequinMannequinThis is easy to implement for Windows (as shown), but the unix implementation uses io.TextIOWrapper.readline() to get the password input. The unix implementation would have to be rewritten to provide the same functionality.
Unfortunately modern laptop keyboards have almost no key travel and barely any tactile feedback [*]. Users on such keyboards really do need feedback for each key pressed. Not providing an option for such feedback is in effect forcing users to choose maximally weak password.
[*] worse, a large proportion of MBP keyboards produced in the last few years have the notoriously bad 'butterfly' key design that occasionally duplicates and swallows keypresses. Yes, a trillion dollar company can't make a functional keyboard.
Reacted by Keiran Raine, Stevoisiak, Elijah Ayomide raji, Thibaud Colas and Michael BearI’m surprised to see this opened for so long! Is this waiting on a design decision or pull request? Looking at the contribution guidelines for standard library changes, it seems the recommended course of action would be to create a new thread in Discourse under Ideas?
My two cents on the issue – it’s one of those we run into at every single workshop / training for newcomers to open source like Django Girls. There‘s no feedback when typing. In the case of Django, there’s no indication not to expect any feedback either. Lots of people use Windows and will have never come across that kind of prompt ever. So as mentioned above – this is indeed encouraging people to choose a password that’s simple to type.
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sorry, I can send PR soon.
note: I left a comment about this #130496 (comment)- added a commit that references this issue
on May 15, 2025 - added a commit that references this issue
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on May 15, 2025 - added a commit that references this issue
on May 15, 2025 - added a commit that references this issue
on May 15, 2025
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echo_charforgetpass.getpass#130496echo_charforgetpass.fallback_getpass#133849echo_charingetpass.fallback_getpass(GH-133849) #134053putwchinstead ofputchinwin_getpass#134058putwchinstead ofputchingetpass.win_getpass(GH-134058) #134059