History Main / HighlyVisiblePassword

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hqdefault_716.jpg]] [[caption-width-right:350:Enter password to continue reading page.\\

* Sly2BandOfThieves: One mission requires you to trigger the alarms to lure a guard to deactivate them, at which point you can photograph the passcode, which is displayed in enormous digits just above the keypad.

* 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]] [[TheChessmaster wanted them out of New York City]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist before he kills half of the city's population]] [[UtopiaJustifiestheMeans to prevent a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.]]]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hqdefault_716.jpg]]

@@Enter password to continue reading page.\\
> ''[[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish SWORDFISH]]''@@

* When running through the security check to power up one of the setting's HumongousMecha in ''[[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. Presumably 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''.

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

* TVTropes wiki [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/changepass.php password changer]].

* A feature that is becoming more common and is available on the Windows 8 operating system is the ability to toggle between asterisks and a visible password by clicking a small button beside the password input box.

** In ''A Scandal in Belgravia'', after Sherlock correctly infers that the blanks in the password to [[TheVamp Irene]]'s smartphone, which displays "I AM ***LOCKED," should be filled in with [[spoiler:the letters S,H,E and R]], they appear rather dramatically on the phone's screen.
** And again in ''The Hounds of Baskerville,'' with the password to Major Barrymore's mainframe.

* In ''[[Series/{{Sherlock}} A Scandal in Belgravia]]'', after Sherlock correctly infers that the blanks in the password to [[TheVamp Irene]]'s smartphone, which displays "I AM ***LOCKED," should be filled in with [[spoiler:the letters S,H,E and R]], they appear rather dramatically on the phone's screen.

* ''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.

[[folder:Films]]

* 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.

* Strange inversion in the ''Manga/DeathNote'' movie: the ''username'' is asterisked out while the password is highly visible. Some RealLife systems actually work that way.
* In the ''Manga/DeathNote'' live action movies when Light hacks into his father's computer the password is displayed in large all-caps as being "SAKURARANBO" (Japanese for "cherry tree").
** Averted in the anime where all passwords are asterisked out.

** This has been seen in iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, Android devices (if "Visible passwords" is turned on), the [=DSi's=] web browser, and the Blackberry Storm 9500.

** Same thing for the PS3's onscreen keyboard

* All versions of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' have the "say the password aloud" version of this trope. Presumably 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.

* In ''[[Series/{{Sherlock}} A Scandal in Belgravia]]'', after Sherlock correctly infers that the blanks in the password to [[TheVamp Irene]]'s smartphone, which displays "I AM ***LOCKED," should be filled in with the letters S,H,E and R, they appear rather dramatically on the phone's screen.

* In ''TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'' the speaking passwords out loud variation is used, with the passwords to the various security systems of Machiavelli's all being [[GeniusBonus the Italian titles of his works]]. Fortunately, they do have voice recognition, so it's not as if his enemies could just hire a Renaissance scholar to crack them. And nobody knows (or would believe) he's the original Machiavelli anyway.

* In the game ''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.

* In ''{{Splinter Cell}}: Chaos Theory'' 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.

* Many web sites and programs will temporarily disable password masking if you submit an incorrect password, presumably on the assumption that you still ''know'' you password and just mistyped it.

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'', on two separate occasions:
** In "The Ides of Metropolis", a cyber-terrorist threatens to cripple Metropolis with a computer virus on March 15 ("the ides of March"). Following the villain's obsession with ''Theater/JuliusCaesar'', the password turns out to be '[=EtTuBrute=]'.
** In "The Rival", a rival newspaper editor was staging disasters so he could break in with exclusives on them before the Daily Planet could. Thanks to his 0obsession with ''Film/CitizenKane'', Lois and Clark figured out that his password was 'Rosebud'.