Bug#57476: when prompting for password, should emit '*' or some acknowledgment of keystroke

[Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>]

Randolph Chung wrote:
> > When prompting for passwords, base-config doens't emit any acknowledgment
> > that keys are being typed.  There should be *something* emitted, such
> > as '*' or whathave you.  
> > 
> > This may be a limitation of dialog for all I know -- feel free to
> > reassign the bug if so.
> 
> as was pointed out to me by joeyh, this is consistent with how unix passwd
> works :-)

In fact, it's consistent with unix programs from xdm to passwd to login, to
su, etc, etc. Some people hold that outputting information that can let
people guess the length of your password is a security hole.

This bug should be either closed, or reassigned to whiptail, which does the
actual prompting.

-- 
see shy jo