Why are passwords in the Linux terminal unmasked? [closed]

Question

When entering a password into the password field in a Linux terminal- the password is just in the clear!

This is a commonly known fact.

But what if I'm in public, like in an office, and need to enter my password, regardless of the reason, but that annoying colleague is just staring at my screen, waiting!?

Couldn't the developers have made some kind of feature that works something like: press Ctrl+*, and then whatever I type next is obscured by bullet points or asterisks?

Is the reason that something like this isn't implemented into the terminal because:

1. The devs didn't think of this (unlikely)?
2. There's a reason why this can't be implemented into terminals?
3. They just don't see the need?

Because personally, although this isn't a common occurrence, I feel pretty uncomfortable whenever I have to do it in public!

Now, there are many tools that people have made to help with this, such as:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55766607/hiding-password-field-in-command-line

And

https://www.tecmint.com/show-asterisks-sudo-password-in-linux/

But, the thing is, these require installed tools, which I wouldn't have a problem with installing, but what if I am using a work system that doesn't allow or want unauthorized programs installed. Also, the general gist I am getting with these programs is that some of them require you to pre-enter your password into them, which poses even bigger security flaws.

But I am asking this question because I want to know why something like the Ctrl+* feature isn't around, as implementing something as small as this seems like it would have such a big benefit, I think.

As a side note, Adam Katz talks about a 9-bullet-point-password, where obscurity would come in handy. Maybe in this case, and this case only, I might take their suggestion up!!

Answer 1

When entering a password into the password field in a Linux terminal- the password is just in the clear!

This claim is simply not true. The normal password prompts in SSH or at the console do not show the entered password. Instead they show nothing by (temporarily) setting "echo off" in the tty settings.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55766607/hiding-password-field-in-command-line

This question does not refer to entering the password "in the password field in a terminal" but is about specifying the password (in clear) as a command line argument. This has nothing to do with the terminal but is how the specific command expects its parameters.

Since it is often not a good idea to provide the password directly on the command line, many commands actually have ways to specify a password without writing it in clear on the command line - like reading it from a file, reading it from a file descriptor, reading it from the terminal (with echo off) etc. They sometimes offer a command line option though, so that it can be used for scripting.

In the case of the referred questions it was about some unspecific "compression_bin" where the encryption password was specified on the command line. But tools handling encryption like zip or gpg usually don't expect the password on the command line at all - instead they ask with echo off on the terminal.

https://www.tecmint.com/show-asterisks-sudo-password-in-linux/

This question is also not about entering the password in "clear", but instead about replacing the current "don't show anything" (echo off) with "show asterisk instead".