History Main / HighlyVisiblePassword

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[[quoteright:350:[[Series/TheXFiles https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/highly_visible_password.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Incorrect password. Please try again.\\
> ''[[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish SWORDFISH]]''\\
Correct. Welcome to the page.]]

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[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/WarGames'' has a HighlyVisiblePassword typed in a terminal program. In most real-life command line programs, a password simply won't show up ''at all'' rather than showing up either as plain text or as asterisks. This can be irritating if you don't realize you've made a typo because you can't see that there's one extra asterisk.
* Strange inversion in the ''Film/DeathNote'' movie: the ''username'' is asterisked out while the password is highly visible. Some RealLife systems actually work that way.

* In the ''BibiBlocksberg'' movie, Rafea uses a spell to make the password of Mr. Blocksberg's computer a highly visible one.

* In ''Film/TidalWaveNoEscape'', this is how the user is shown ahead of time that the big bad's ultimate (and all-caps) computer password is [[spoiler:the hero's name]].
%%* Happened in ''Film/TheRunningMan''.

* When running through the security check to power up one of the setting's HumongousMecha in ''[[Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse [=BattleTech=]]]'' novels, the passphrase is always spoken out loud. Less of a security risk than it may seem since the pilot is usually alone in the cockpit at the time and other ways to hack into and take over a 'Mech exist anyway, but definitely a case of ViewerFriendlyInterface.

* All versions of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' have the "say the password aloud" version of this trope. They are checking for voice matches too, but a few episodes have shown that the computer can be fooled by a recording of the officer in question saying the password - or even just a ''really good impersonator''.
** Also, what happens if the officer in question catches a cold?

* In the game ''VideoGame/SecondSight'', the player can access computer terminals. If the terminal needs a password and the player doesn't know it then John Vattic (the Main Character) keeps entering generic passwords, which the player can see on the screen.

* Every time you encounter a keypad locked door in one of the ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' games, there will be a computer nearby with an email on the screen reading something to the effect of "In accordance to our security regulations, the access code to the lab has changed. The new code is 349".

* At one point in ''VideoGame/{{Broken Helix}}'', the player is given the password for a computer containing the files for Project Broken Helix. This trope occurs when the player enters the password, which clearly says "Contact".
* In VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork, [=MegaMan.EXE=] is always able to see the passwords and security certificates Lan needs him to handle; this is justified because as a [=NetNavi=] one of his roles is to help manage passwords, and he is typically in the right data spaces to see and manage said passwords, which are sometimes amusingly visible from his point of view as massive letters printed on huge floor tiles.
* Many networked arcade games by Konami will require you to enter a PIN (along with your card) to log into your account. If the game is touchscreen-based, or has buttons overlaid on the screen like ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'', a virtual keypad will be displayed on the screen, and the arrangement of digits on the keypad will shuffle on every PIN entry attempt in order to defy this trope by preventing other people from easily guessing your PIN based on where you're tapping (the aforementioned ''jubeat'' in particular has a 4x4 grid of buttons that are quite big compared to the keys on a conventional keypad).

* Taken to its extreme in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''. Not only does Syndrome's computer display the password, but his monitor is the size of an IMAX screen and the letters are several feet tall. Of course, just to get to the computer you have to get past a ''literal'' firewall [[ConvectionSchmonvection (a waterfall of lava)]] and an array of anti-superhero turrets fire at you if you get the password wrong, so Syndrome probably isn't too worried about unauthorized users seeing his password.

* Happened in ''Film/BatmanForever''.
* Also with Alfred's disc in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin''.

* In ''Tidal Wave: No Escape'', this is how the user is shown ahead of time that the big bad's ultimate (and all-caps) computer password is [[spoiler:the hero's name]].
* Happened in ''Film/TheRunningMan''.

* Wiki/TVTropes: This very wiki unfortunately doesn't store users' passwords securely at all. If you look in your browser's cookies, you'll likely see your password there, clear as day. Since sessions aren't encrypted, this also means your password is sent in cleartext every time you load a page.

* Wiki/TVTropes wiki [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/changepass.php password changer]], though an overhaul to the wiki software has since fixed that.

* In the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' comic, not only does the password show up on the screen, the computer helpfully informs the person breaking into the system that the password is incomplete. Hey, it was TheEighties, it was a simpler, more naive time; you don't know things didn't work that way then. There's also a theory that [[spoiler: [[BigBad Ozymandias]] wanted them out of New York City before he kills half of the city's population[[UtopiaJustifiestheMeans to prevent a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.]]]]

* Taken to [[ExaggeratedTrope extremes]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb2ddeuqjOA/ this episode]] of Jinnai Tomonori's series. It repeats his PIN number out loud for confirmation, then displays it on-screen in a large font.

* Some command line programs (like the MySQL client) still have ways of entering the password in the clear.

* Many networked arcade games by Konami will require you to enter a PIN (along with your card) to log into your account. If the game is touchscreen-based, or has buttons overlaid on the screen like ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'', a virtual keypad will be displayed on the screen, and the arrangement of digits on the keypad will shuffle on every PIN entry attempt in order to defy this trope by preventing other people from easily guessing your PIN based on where you're tapping.

* Many networked arcade games by Konami will require you to enter a PIN (along with your card) to log into your account. If the game is touchscreen-based, or has buttons overlaid on the screen like ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'', the arrangement of digits on the virtual keypad will shuffle on every PIN entry attempt, in order to defy this trope by preventing other people from easily guessing your PIN based on where you're tapping.

* Many networked arcade games by Konami will require you to enter a PIN (along with your card) to log into your account. If the game is touchscreen-based, or has buttons overlaid on the screen like ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'', the arrangement of digits on the virtual keypad will shuffle every time you log in, in order to defy this trope by preventing other people from easily guessing your PIN based on where you're tapping.

* Android has a unique "trace a pattern on a grid to unlock your phone" feature, which many use since it's more convenient than tapping on a virtual numpad while still being less exploitable than unlock methods based on fingerprints or facial recognition. However, early versions of Android show the pattern you're tracing by default, allowing your friend or the stranger next to you to easily see it.

* Android has a unique "trace a pattern on a grid to unlock" feature, which many use since it's more convenient than tapping on a virtual numpad. However, early versions of Android show the pattern you're tracing by default, allowing your friend or the stranger next to you to easily see it.

* [[http://www.bash.org/?244321 This quote]] on Bash.org.

* In ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory'' there is not so much a highly visible password as a highly audible one. A guard will be having an argument with someone over the phone within earshot of the player. When the player starts listening in, the topic has changed to the dangers of speaking a door code out loud. The frustrated guard will then shout out the door code repeatedly to prove that nobody is listening in.

** Still better than his rival Dillinger's: '''MASTER'''. Dillinger's stupidly simple password almost works as {{Foreshadowing}} to indicate he's actually crap at programming and didn't earn his position honestly.
The silly passwords are almost {{Justified}} by the era. Computer networking and security wasn't as much of a thought in the early 80's.

* The password entered by Kevin Flynn to enter the Master Control's computer system in ''{{Film/Tron}}'' would have been a better one if it wasn't so visible: '''REINDEER FLOTILLA''', 17 characters in all (remember, spaces count!!)

!!Examples

[[folder:Comics]]
* In the ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' comic, not only does the password show up on the screen, the computer helpfully informs the person breaking into the system that the password is incomplete. Hey, it was TheEighties, it was a simpler, more naive time; you don't know things didn't work that way then. There's also a theory that [[spoiler: [[BigBad Ozymandias]] wanted them out of New York City before he kills half of the city's population[[UtopiaJustifiestheMeans to prevent a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.]]]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Meta]]
* This very wiki unfortunately doesn't store users' passwords securely at all. If you look in your browser's cookies, you'll likely see your password there, clear as day. Since sessions aren't encrypted, this also means your password is sent in cleartext every time you load a page.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[caption-width-right:350:->Incorrect password. Please try again.
-> > ''[[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish SWORDFISH]]''
->Correct. Welcome to the page.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hqdefault_716.jpg]]]] [[caption-width-right:350:Enter password to continue reading page.\\
> ''[[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish SWORDFISH]]'']]

** iOS will forcibly switch your keyboard to the stock iOS keyboard with prediction and correction turned off when typing in a password field.