HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking • Hacker News Board

HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#1

Post by nirmal » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:07 PM UTC

HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking
lab.arc90.com

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#2

Post by vaksel » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:15 PM UTC

the whole point of masking is so that you don't give away your password when you are using a projector(giving presentations etc)...this is no different than not masking the thing at all

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#3

Post by modoc » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:23 PM UTC

vaksel wrote: post #2

the whole point of masking is so that you don't give away your password when you are using a projector(giving presentations etc)...this is no different than not masking the thing at all

Well, that's certainly part of the point, but it's also to prevent casual shoulder surfing/people walking by/etc...

I guess I'd prefer to see something like how the iPhone handles it, where each char is shown for split second before being masked. It lets you see that you haven't typo'ed, and yet ensures that your whole password is never sitting on the screen.

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#4

Post by drcode » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:28 PM UTC

The demo actually works better than you would think: Easy to read for the writer, hard to read for a shoulder surfer.

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#5

Post by dylanz » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:34 PM UTC

I still like my idea: * * * * els

Where you mask every character up to the last N specified characters. I started writing this up in JQuery, but... then I stopped ;)

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#6

Post by _giu » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:42 PM UTC

nice idea and nice realization, too! it works pretty good! if you can't read the password after you've typed it in, try to mark it with SHIFT + LEFT-/RIGHT-ARROW or SHIFT + HOME/END :)

by the way: the guys from arc90.com cook up pretty cool things in their labs, like the greatly useful Readability bookmarklet http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#7

Post by jokull » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:42 PM UTC

My idea is the best: reveal on mouseover

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#8

Post by dylanz » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:44 PM UTC

jokull wrote: post #7

My idea is the best: reveal on mouseover

Yeah, I think you have a great point there :)

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#9

Post by umbrae » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:49 PM UTC

Hey guys, I'm the author of HalfMask - please let me know if you have any feedback, or you can check out the source on google code: http://code.google.com/p/halfmask/

Forking to try new things is heartily encouraged - I'd like to see new approaches to password masking.

Re: HalfMask - an Experiment in Password Masking

#10

Post by kolya3 » Wed, Jul 08, 2009, 9:49 PM UTC

dylanz wrote: post #5

I still like my idea: * * * * els Where you mask every character up to the last N specified characters. I started writing this up in JQuery, but... then I stopped ;)

Same as the iPhone.