Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

3 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Windows 8 by scottnix · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I like the way Windows 8 addressed this problem. They added a button that looks like an eye on the right hand side of the password field to show the password as you've typed it. That seems like a better compromise than briefly showing the password characters.

  2. Good. by Rational · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I hope it catches on. Just give me a tickbox if I want masking when in a public place.

    --
    "Be nice, veer left, and never stop thinking" Iain Banks - Walking On Glass
  3. Re:"Show password as I type" checkbox by gnasher719 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The log-in and sign-up pages on Phil's Hobby Shop have a "Show password as I type" checkbox. Is this what you were looking for?

    As a MacOS X developer, the developer can mark text entry fields as "password". A major effect of this that other applications (like external spelling checkers, for example) don't have access to what you are typing. The other effect is that the input is hidden.

    At the moment, you can't have a password field that gives protection against malware that could be on your computer, _and_ at the same time displays the password. Only one or the other.