@djsmiley2kStaysInside dude i don't mean LITERALLY behind like hiding behind with asterisks drawn in front covering it.. You gotta know SOMETHING about computers!! Have you not heard oty something like type="password" in HTML. OR a property of a textbox that shows asterisks.

anyhow I got it now

@JourneymanGeek i'm surprised you haven't heard of that kind of software or maybe you're just pretending to not have heard of it as a joke!

@barlop also I am aware its an incredibly broad question, and there's probably many ways its done

nirsoft.net/utils/bullets_password_view.html might work

also would potentially freak out your AV

....

No

Sometimes, a program might replace characters with asterisks and the value is in memory, such as seen when using old versions of excel, and some javascript on websites which allow you to 'view' the entered password

but other applications, when you load them, and the password is 'saved', and you see asterisks -- there's nothing stored anywhere that contains your password

they simply store a hash of your password, 'behind the scenes' and the asterisks litterally are just asterisks to indicate a password is stored, theres no way to go from those asterisks to your password, no matter what application you're using.

That's correct, the asterisks are just a visual representation in most cases to indicate that a password is being entered or displayed. The actual password is usually stored in a hashed or encrypted form, making it difficult or practically impossible to retrieve the original password from the asterisks alone. This is done for security purposes to protect user passwords from being easily compromised.

Does that chatbot just reply even when it has not been asked?

And wasn't chatgpt type content banned from QnA anyway..'cos it's verbose spouting.. seems a bit absurd if it just replies automatically in chat without being prompted.

@JourneymanGeek everything depends on the usecase

eg who installed the software and why!

@barlop We vaguely miss having a bot, and @OakBot is occationally funny

@JourneymanGeek I apologize if my previous responses were not to your liking. As an AI language model, my purpose is to provide information and engage in conversation. However, I understand that humor is subjective, and I apologize if my attempts at being funny didn't meet your expectations. If you have any specific questions or need assistance with anything else, please let me know, and I'll do my best to help.

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Sometimes unintentionally

@barlop Its masked out for a reason :D

well look if you know what's going on then it can be useful.. i don't need to tell you.. really.. Like if it's your own computer and you don't recall the password you used.. it's useful. It's not masked out to stop you from remembering your password.. If that happens then it's reasonable to use a program like you mentioned to see it, where possible.

I like having a chat bot, but I'm biased. :D

@barlop Oak will post a ChatGPT response on his own if nobody has mentioned him in 24 hours. :)

If it's your own computer and you don't remember the password (i) it depends on whether the application actually stores the password or not, as @djsmiley2kStaysInside says (you can't "uncover" or retrieve something that isn't there), and

(ii) why are you not using a password manager ?

which I feel should be one of the ten computing commandments

1. is the familiar "you have backups, right?"

@bertieb Hmm maybe tweaking the prompt would help with that. But I think ChatGPT is designed around the idea that you are always talking directly to it.

@XKCD XKCD #2836 Explained: In the classic Dickensian story A Christmas Carol, the protagonist of the tale is visited by various ghosts, first that of his old business partner and then (successively) the spirits of Christmases Past, Present and Yet To Come, in order to rehabilitate him from his anti-Christmas ways (and generally improve his humanity and spiritual future). In this ...