Ubuntu and (many) derivatives don't give feedback when you're typing the password, but they can!

[KGIII]

The reality is that most of my computers don't even require you use a password with sudo, but that's a story for a previous day. On the other hand, you probably do - and if you use Ubuntu it probably doesn't provide any feedback when you're authenticating in the terminal.

Well, you can make it show asterisks easily enough. It's actually quite simple, and I tell you how.

How To: Make Ubuntu Show Asterisks When Typing Password

By default, Ubuntu doesn't show anything when you enter your password in the terminal. This is for security reasons. Someone shoulder-surfing won't be able to see the number of characters in your…

linuxtips.gq

As always, feedback is wanted.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Never knew that was possible, learned something new but not planning to enable it because with asterisks enabled for sudo people viewing your screen can see how many characters your password is by counting the number of asterisks that appear on the screen so I'll be keeping it default which is nothing showing up at all on the screen.

 

[jglen490]

Agree.

 

[KGIII]

It is indeed a risk for shoulder surfing. I even mentioned that. I'm getting into the swing of this article writing thing. It helps to write 'em early and schedule 'em for every other day. So far, this has been a pretty good strategy. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because it reduces the stress of publishing immediately and trying to write daily.

 

[Condobloke]

And, I do not want asterisk 'feedback'....I dont need it. My brain still works sufficiently well to be able to type in my password without needing such confirmation.

Look online for "how to remove the bloody asterisks when typing a password".....and there are not a great deal of responses.

There are plenty detailing how to retrieve the password from the Asterisks etc etc

All I could find to obliterate the asterisks was :

Remove Asterisk from Linux server (ubuntu/centos/debian/rhel)

Chris Titus Tech was started as a resource for all things technology. It has evolved from a YouTube channel to now be a resource for anyone wanted to learn about a variety of tech.

christitus.com

FULL REMOVAL NO REINSTALL

Now let’s say you just want to remove Asterisk and just don’t want it anymore. Well, that is far simpler. Just run the following commands and it will be gone forever


killall -9 safe_asterisk
killall -9 asterisk
systemctl disable asterisk ##Note: depending on the install this may not be enabled or was set to run via @reboot cron or daemon service - Mileage will vary##
rm -rf /etc/asterisk
rm -rf /var/log/asterisk
rm -rf /var/lib/asterisk
rm -rf /var/lib64/asterisk
rm -rf /var/spool/asterisk
rm -rf /usr/lib/asterisk
rm -rf /usr/lib64/asterisk
reboot

These instructions should work on any Linux Based system and it shouldn’t matter if it is Red Hat based or Debian based.

Would you agree with that approach ?

 

[f33dm3bits]

It is indeed a risk for shoulder surfing. I even mentioned that. I'm getting into the swing of this article writing thing. It helps to write 'em early and schedule 'em for every other day. So far, this has been a pretty good strategy. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because it reduces the stress of publishing immediately and trying to write daily.

I only read how you explain it what you have to do to configure it that way. I read the introduction just now and you do mention it, my bad but I usually tend to read over introductions and go straight to how things get done part. Nothing to comment about the article, except that I did learn something new.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Would you agree with that approach ?

I'll take a look at that when I can.

In Linux Mint, where the asterisk revealed feature was brought in with the 19 series, it is a simple matter of deleting one file

/etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback

I am not aware if that is sustained over upgrading your Mint from within the distro, as I prefer a clean install of the new version.

David G @KGIII - with these articles, do you prefer feedback here or at the website?

Nite all Avagudweegend

Wizard

 

[Condobloke]

Thanks Chris....job done...no more asterisks!

 

[KGIII]

David G @KGIII - with these articles, do you prefer feedback here or at the website?

Anywhere is fine, thanks. I may have to do an article on removing 'em from Mint, just for completeness sake and to have said articles all in one place. Then again, you could just as easily do said article and all I'd need to do is proofread and schedule it! ;-)

I usually tend to read over introductions

You're not alone in that. I think many, many people do. I know I do when I'm in a hurry looking for something.

I can make them only so interesting. The more accurate explanation is that I use that intro section to optimize for search engines and that's where I write the blurb that will get tossed into the meta section (that's only a couple of sentences) that gets shown on search engine results.

As much as I didn't want to care about SEO, the site's ideal purpose is to be found by people looking for solutions to their problems. I don't really expect many people to read it daily. It's kinda like an attempt to get some of my 'Linux_notes.txt' files online.

Would you agree with that approach ?

I haven't tested it, but it looks like it'd make a fun article to do!

 

[wizardfromoz]

If my memory doesn't fail me (don't go there ) the asterisk workaround was published by Clem's people with release notes for the 19 series, because it caused a bit of a hullabaloo at the time.

I could scout around for it.

Wiz

 

[KGIII]

I could scout around for it.

I wouldn't scout too hard. I've got plenty of material for articles for quite a while.

I have extensive notes.

Not good notes, no. But, extensive notes. (Including bizarre terminal commands that I don't actually know what they did, what they were for, and I'm not quite sure how they work!)

I've been diligent in taking notes for a long time. I've just not been wise in my note taking!

 

[Condobloke]

In Linux Mint, where the asterisk revealed feature was brought in with the 19 series, it is a simple matter of deleting one file

/etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback

Interestingly, that removes asterisks in Terminal, but in adding and/or removing apps, the asterisks remain.