Getting command-line password input in Python

Question

You know how in Linux when you try some Sudo stuff it tells you to enter the password and, as you type, nothing is shown in the terminal window (the password is not shown)?

Is there a way to do that in Python? I'm working on a script that requires so sensitive info and would like for it to be hidden when I'm typing it.

In other words, I want to get the password from the user without showing the password.

Answer 1

Use getpass.getpass():

from getpass import getpass
password = getpass()

An optional prompt can be passed as parameter; the default is "Password: ".

Note that this function requires a proper terminal, so it can turn off echoing of typed characters – see “GetPassWarning: Can not control echo on the terminal” when running from IDLE for further details.

Answer 2

import getpass

pswd = getpass.getpass('Password:')

getpass works on Linux, Windows, and Mac.

Answer 3

Use getpass for this purpose.

getpass.getpass - Prompt the user for a password without echoing

Answer 4

This code will print an asterisk instead of every letter.

import sys
import msvcrt

passwor = ''
while True:
    x = msvcrt.getch()
    if x == '\r':
        break
    sys.stdout.write('*')
    passwor +=x

print '\n'+passwor

Answer 5

Updating on the answer of @Ahmed ALaa

# import msvcrt
import getch

def getPass():
    passwor = ''
    while True:
        x = getch.getch()
        # x = msvcrt.getch().decode("utf-8")
        if x == '\r' or x == '\n':
            break
        print('*', end='', flush=True)
        passwor +=x
    return passwor

print("\nout=", getPass())

msvcrt us only for windows, but getch from PyPI should work for both (I only tested with linux). You can also comment/uncomment the two lines to make it work for windows.

Answer 6

Here is my code based off the code offered by @Ahmed ALaa

Features:

• Works for passwords up to 64 characters
• Accepts backspace input
• Outputs * character (DEC: 42 ; HEX: 0x2A) instead of the input character

Demerits:

• Works on Windows only

The function secure_password_input() returns the password as a string when called. It accepts a Password Prompt string, which will be displayed to the user to type the password

def secure_password_input(prompt=''):
    p_s = ''
    proxy_string = [' '] * 64
    while True:
        sys.stdout.write('\x0D' + prompt + ''.join(proxy_string))
        c = msvcrt.getch()
        if c == b'\r':
            break
        elif c == b'\x08':
            p_s = p_s[:-1]
            proxy_string[len(p_s)] = " "
        else:
            proxy_string[len(p_s)] = "*"
            p_s += c.decode()

    sys.stdout.write('\n')
    return p_s

Answer 7

15.7. getpass — Portable password input

#!/usr/bin/python3
from getpass import getpass
passwd = getpass("password: ")
print(passwd)

You can read more here