How to show keystrokes when typing password on command-line

Question

My laptop's keyboard is failing and certain keys sometimes work, and sometimes don't. When I type a password on a GUI, I realize that the pressed key has not worked, since I can count the keystrokes looking at something akin to ****** in the password field. That gives me the chance of re-pressing the key, until it works (which can mean between 1-3 presses). The same applies to typing a normal text.

When typing my password in the command-line (using su, for example), however, I only realize that some key has not worked after I press enter and get a Authentication failure message.

Is there a safe way of dealing with it? Just typing the password in plain text and copy-and-pasting it seems not to be the case.

Answer 1

No, probably not. The program would have to be modified to output the dots or asterisks on each keypress. That's extra code (it's much easier to just disable echo). Some consider it an abomination, since it makes the length of the password visible so I wouldn't put much money on patches being accepted either.

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Typing the password locally on the laptop might not be that dangerous though, since if your laptop is compromised, a keylogger is probably the first thing installed, and the attacker will get your password anyway, when you type it to SSH. Not that typing the password so that it's visible on screen in plain text would be wise, though.

Have you considered using a password manager? They usually work by letting you paste the password to the application that needs it, so you only need to type the manager's master password, and a password manager with GUI might show the dots.

Another possibility would be change all your passwords so that they don't need any of the broken keys. This shouldn't be too bad if only a few keys are stuck, and if you compensate for it by making the password slightly longer.

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In any case, working with a broken keyboard will likely become horridly annoying eventually even for other reasons, so I would look into getting it cleaned / fixed / replaced.