Get password in Python Programming Language

Original

There is a function in the standard library module getpass:

>>> import getpass
>>> getpass.getpass("Enter a password: ")
Enter a password: 
'hello'

This function does not echo any characters as you type.

Addendum

If you absolutely must have * echoed while the password is typed, and you are on Windows, then you can do so by butchering the existing getpass.win_getpass to add it. Here is an example (untested):

def starred_win_getpass(prompt='Password: ', stream=None):
    import sys, getpass

    if sys.stdin is not sys.__stdin__:
        return getpass.fallback_getpass(prompt, stream)

    # print the prompt
    import msvcrt
    for c in prompt:
        msvcrt.putwch(c)

    # read the input
    pw = ""
    while 1:
        c = msvcrt.getwch()
        if c == '\r' or c == '\n':
            break
        if c == '\003':
            raise KeyboardInterrupt
        if c == '\b':
            pw = pw[:-1]

            # PATCH: echo the backspace
            msvcrt.putwch(c)         
        else:
            pw = pw + c

            # PATCH: echo a '*'
            msvcrt.putwch('*')         

    msvcrt.putwch('\r')
    msvcrt.putwch('\n')
    return pw

Similarly, on unix, a solution would be to butcher the existing getpass.unix_getpass in a similar fashion (replacing the readline in _raw_input with an appropriate read(1) loop).

Use the getpass() function and then print the number of stars equivalent to the number of characters in the password. This is a sample:

import getpass
pswd = getpass.getpass('Password:')
print '*' * len(pswd)

The drawback is it does not print ***** side by side.