Masking user input in python with asterisks

I am trying to mask what the user types into IDLE with asterisks so people around them can't see what they're typing/have typed in. I'm using basic raw input to collect what they type.

key = raw_input('Password :: ')


Ideal IDLE prompt after user types password:

Password :: **********


You will have to do some custom stdout redirection to mask with asterisks, but there is an easier way to get passwords stackoverflow.com/a/1761753/1268926
– Kedar
Dec 24 '14 at 5:01

3 Answers
3

Depending on the OS, how you get a single character from user input and how to check for the carriage return will be different.

See this post: Python read a single character from the user

On OSX, for example, you could so something like this:

import sys, tty, termios

def getch():
fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
try:
tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
finally:
termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
return ch

key = ""
sys.stdout.write('Password :: ')
while True:
ch = getch()
if ch == 'r':
break
key += ch
sys.stdout.write('*')
print
print key


To solve this I wrote this small module pyssword to mask the user input password at the prompt. It works with windows. The code is below:

from msvcrt import getch
import getpass, sys

def pyssword(prompt='Password: '):
'''
Prompt for a password and masks the input.
Returns:
the value entered by the user.
'''

if sys.stdin is not sys.__stdin__:
pwd = getpass.getpass(prompt)
return pwd
else:
pwd = ""
sys.stdout.write(prompt)
sys.stdout.flush()
while True:
key = ord(getch())
if key == 13: #Return Key
sys.stdout.write('n')
return pwd
break
if key == 8: #Backspace key
if len(pwd) > 0:
# Erases previous character.
sys.stdout.write('b' + ' ' + 'b')
sys.stdout.flush()
pwd = pwd[:-1]
else:
# Masks user input.
char = chr(key)
sys.stdout.write('*')
sys.stdout.flush()
pwd = pwd + char


“While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.”
– Ghost
May 25 '16 at 22:43

Code included as requested !
– Rafael Ribeiro
May 26 '16 at 14:12

The below code provides replaces written characters with asterix and allow for deletion of wrongly typed characters. The number of asterixes reflects the number of typed characters.

import getpass
key = getpass.getpass('Password :: ')


And after the user press enter:

Although your code snippet might solve the issue, you should describe what’s the purpose of your code (how it solves the problem). Furthermore, you might want to check stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer
– Ahmad F
Mar 7 at 13:31

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