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Fedora 19 To Stop Masking Passwords

Posted by timothy on from the dot-dot-dot-dot dept.

First time accepted submitter PAjamian writes "Maintainers of the Anaconda installer in Fedora have taken it upon themselves to show passwords in plaintext on the screen as they are entered into the installer. Following on the now recanted statements of security expert Bruce Schneier, Anaconda maintainers have decided that it is not a security risk to show passwords on your screen in the latest Alpha release of Fedora 19. Members of the Fedora community on the Fedora devel mailing list are showing great concern over this change in established security protocols." Note: the change was first reported in the linked thread by Dan Mashal.

5 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory bash.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Obligatory bash.org quote

  2. Re:why isn't there a flag? by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Many times I'd like to see my password in clear text (like when entering new passwords, to make sure they're correct). It would be convenient to have some way to temporarily turn off asterisk masking.

    I solve this problem by making all my passwords ********.

  3. no problem by ssam · · Score: 5, Funny

    my password is '*********' so there will be no change for me

  4. Re:Windows 8 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    For mentioning a Microsoft product, we had to mod you down.

  5. Re:Arrogant maintainers... by RawsonDR · · Score: 4, Funny

    We just have to find a key on the keyboard that people are unlikely to use but is always present. How about this "CapsLk" one?

    i DON'T THINK MY KEYBOARD HAS THAT ONE

    i don"t often post on slashdot because holding down the shift key is far too tedious