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gzreadtoday at 6:49 AM2 repliesview on HN

Good. It's terrible UX.

The security argument is a red herring. It was originally built with no echo because it was easier to turn echo on and off than to echo asterisks. Not for security.


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zenethiantoday at 7:32 AM

You got some sources or did you just make that up?

Because to hell with UX when it comes to security. Knowing the exact length of a password absolutely makes it significantly less secure, and knowing the timing of the keystrokes doubly so.

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themafiatoday at 7:03 AM

> easier to turn echo on and off than to echo asterisks.

One implies the other. You turn echo off. Then you write asterisks.

> Not for security.

Consider the case of copy and pasting parts of your terminal to build instructions or to share something like a bug report. Or screen sharing in general. You are then leaking the length of your password. This isn't necessarily disastrous for most use cases but it is a negative security attribute.

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