Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: Is Password Masking On Its Way Out?

Posted by BeauHD on from the unmasked-department-name dept.

New submitter thegreatbob writes: Perhaps you've noticed in the last 5 years or so, progressively more entities have been providing the ability to reveal the contents of a password field. While this ability is, in many cases (especially on devices with lousy keyboards), legitimately useful, it does seem to be a reasonable source of concern. Fast forward to today; I was setting up a new router (cheapest dual-band router money can, from Tenda) and I was almost horrified to discover that it does not mask any of its passwords by default. So I ask Slashdot: is password masking really on its way out, and does password masking do anything beyond preventing the casual shoulder-surfer?

6 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obligatory Spaceballs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    This is the most repeated joke ever, -78 creativity points.

  2. Re: what else do you think it does? by Matt.Battey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Even for those web sites that don't have the feature it's the top three browsers (Chrome, Firefox, and IE) will all let you see any saved passwords by just inspecting the fields DOM properties...

  3. Re: Obligatory Spaceballs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Your mom is the most repeated joke ever. Followed by you.

  4. You want your password unmasked? by mark-t · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make it a bunch of asterisks.

    Done.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  5. Re:Masquerade by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    "subsequently copy it to the password field."

    I use control-v as a special character in my passwords, you insensitive clod.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  6. hunter2 by Frankie70 · · Score: 5, Funny

    hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars
    <Cthon98> ********* see!
    <AzureDiamond> hunter2
    <AzureDiamond> doesnt look like stars to me
    <Cthon98> <AzureDiamond> *******
    <Cthon98> thats what I see
    <AzureDiamond> oh, really?
    <Cthon98> Absolutely
    <AzureDiamond> you can go hunter2 my hunter2-ing hunter2
    <AzureDiamond> haha, does that look funny to you?
    <Cthon98> lol, yes. See, when YOU type hunter2, it shows to us as *******
    <AzureDiamond> thats neat, I didnt know IRC did that
    <Cthon98> yep, no matter how many times you type hunter2, it will show to us as *******
    <AzureDiamond> awesome!
    <AzureDiamond> wait, how do you know my pw?
    <Cthon98> er, I just copy pasted YOUR ******'s and it appears to YOU as hunter2 cause its your pw
    <AzureDiamond> oh, ok.