How to Reveal Passwords hidden as Asterisks/Stars | Tech News
As web browsers intelligently hide passwords using stars(asterisks or dots), there is no way in which a user can recover his password by simply looking at what the browser shows. Here are some tips and tricks that you can use to reveal your password for a website when you have forgotten it but your browser remembers it.
| Enter your Password! |
Use Developer Options to show passwords
Open the website for which your browser has the saved password, then right click on the password box and click Inspect element.
A code like this would be displayed:-
<input type=”password” class=”inputtext” name=”pass” id=”pass”>
Change the type from password to text so that the code looks like:-
<input type=”text” class=”inputtext” name=”pass” id=”pass”>
Your password would be immediately visible.
JavaScript to Reveal Hidden Passwords
A simple JavaScript code can be used to view passwords in web browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Opera in a popup as an alert message (If the code does not seem to work on your browser, precede it with “javascript:” without quotes. You can also use the bookmarklet given below or the alternative method mentioned above). To use the JavaScript, open your web browser, open the webpage for which the password is obfuscated, copy and paste the following code in the address bar and press Enter.
javascript: var p=r(); function r(){var g=0;var x=false;var x=z(document.forms);g=g+1;var w=window.frames;for(var k=0;k<w.length;k++) {var x = ((x) || (z(w[k].document.forms)));g=g+1;}if (!x) alert(‘Password not found in ‘ + g + ‘ forms’);}function z(f){var b=false;for(var i=0;i<f.length;i++) {var e=f[i].elements;for(var j=0;j<e.length;j++) {if (h(e[j])) {b=true}}}return b;}function h(ej){var s=”;if (ej.type==’password’){s=ej.value;if (s!=”){prompt(‘Password found ‘, s)}else{alert(‘Password is blank’)}return true;}}
Or, alternatively you can use this Show Password Bookmarklet by dragging it to your Bookmarks bar to instantly view hidden passwords at the click of a button.
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| Password Recovery Popup in Google Chrome |
Software to reveal passwords hidden behind dots
There are many free software that you can use to recover forgotten passwords. Some of them are:-
Asterisk Logger:Asterisk Logger from Nirsoft is one such software. It automatically displays the password whenever a window containing a hidden password is detected.
Password Viewer:Password Viewer by IT Samples is another application that can be used to unmask hidden passwords. It allows you to view passwords not only in web browsers but also in any program that might be masking passwords from the user.
Both of these software are free and do not require to be installed. All you need to do is unzip the file and run them. These software work on Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2008, 2003. However, in Windows 10, 8, 7 and Vista, they are required to be used in an Administrator Account. Both these software are browser independent.
Note:They will not be able to decrypt or show User Account Control/Windows logon password.
Google Chrome Extension
Show Password is a Google Chrome extension which automatically converts scrambled hidden passwords into readable form. To use this nifty extension, just open the webpage with the hidden password and click in the field containing the hidden password. The add-on will automatically reveal the password to you.
These tips can also be used by someone else to hack your passwords. To avoid such mishaps, I would advise you to stay alert when others use your private computer.
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