This is a very
bad thing.
It could arise in several ways:
You've missed the password prompt, and typed it into some other part
of the screen. This can happen on slow unix boxes when you type
your username, then begin to enter your password before you're asked for
it. The screen then displays:
digestive login: spiregrain
zocalPassword:
Or maybe on a windows box with a sticky tab key, resulting in your
entering a password and username all in one box.
A stupid program requires you to enter your password, without
replacing it by **** or whatever. Early versions of microsoft
internet explorer do this when you access a non-anonymous FTP
site.
An apparently sensible program lets you enter your password,
replaces it with **** or whatever, then displays it clearly somewhere
else later on. Newer versions of microsoft internet explorer do this
if you open a word document from an FTP site.
A website with user accounts emails it to you. This isn't so bad,
since it doesn't really feel like your password yet.
You run a program that takes a while to load up, grabs the input focus, then displays a text console, say
matlab. While that's loading, you fire up telnet and enter your login. As you enter your password, Matlab starts and your password appears in its window. Doh! There is a way round this under certain circumstances, see mib's writeup below.
News! Gnome 2.10 implements a new freedesktop.org standard which just prevents this from happening! I guess KDE either does this now, or will do soon. (jrn reports that Mac OS X does something similar, but suspects it's not under the auspices of freedesktop.org.)
You set up the CatBoxer in #catbox to forward messages into the Chatterbox. This requires you to send
your e2 password as an irc /msg.
Another way is described in "Choose a password with only X's in it".- thanks for pointing this out go to jrn, and thanks for writing it go to ariels.
Your reactions to any of these events may differ from mine, which are:
Stare at it for a while wondering what it is and why it seems
familiar. This is because although I know how to spell my passwords,
I don't often see them, so they look odd. And then I feel odd.
Frantically press backspace, type login and type "clear", hide the
window, switch off the screen, acording to context and how many nosey
people are in the room, or looking over my shoulder.