[ShotgunEd]

I just noticed this.

Our G4 has 2 users, my dad and me. He uses it most so his user automatically logs in at startup.

I just rebooted and before his Login Items has finished loading i went to the fast user switching menu and selected my user. As usual the password dialog came up but when i typed my password it was displayed as plaintext, not as the usual series of ••••'s that it usually is. Can anyone recreate this?

[Krypton]

That sounds quite dangerous if it turns out to be true...

(I would confirm it, but I don't have more than one user on my machine).

[t_hah]

I do not have Automatic Login selected, and with that I could not re-create the problem. Have you tried re-creating it yourself? Can you make it happen every single time you boot up the Mac?

[absmiths]

Originally posted by Krypton:
That sounds quite dangerous if it turns out to be true...

I don't really think so. Think about it - the only vulnerability is if an admin has a machine set to auto-login as a user, then does a fast user switch to his account immediately at startup, and types in his password with another user standing over his shoulder without realizing that his password is in plaintext (and once realized, he doesn't bother to change his password).

This seems a remote possibility and an alert user should notice his password is being displayed, if this is indeed verified to be authentic and not an aberration of this user's machine.

Granted if true it should be fixed - but I don't think this is a critical flaw (certainly not a remote attack).

[chabig]

I just tried this on my wife's eMac, on which she has auto login turned on. It didn't display the password in plaintext. It showed the usual series of ••••'s that I would have expected.

Perhaps there is something unique to your system.

Chris

[ShotgunEd]

it does it every time on the G4. This is very bizarre.

[t_hah]

And just for "fun", have you repaired the permissions on the Mac? Have you tried setting the Automatic Login to the other user, and see if it still does it?

[smeger]

This happened to me once, making me go "whoah..."

Don't remember the circumstances, and it's never happened again. But once is too many times.

[tooki]

Something in the very back of my mind is telling me that I've heard of this problem before.

I'd look at:
-fonts
-3rd-party add-ons

tooki

[d4nth3m4n]

my parents sawtooth with 9.0.4 used to do this with passwords. never resolved it.

[Appleman]

Originally posted by Krypton:
That sounds quite dangerous if it turns out to be true...

(I would confirm it, but I don't have more than one user on my machine).

If you "would" confirm it but have only one user...it takes ± 5 mins to make one which you later on can easily delete...

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by Appleman:
If you "would" confirm it but have only one user...it takes ± 5 mins to make one which you later on can easily delete...

I also updated to 10.3.5, so maybe it's not an issue any more for most.

± 5 minutes?