[bash] How to get a password from a shell script without echoing

I have a script that automates a process that needs access to a password protected system. The system is accessed via a command-line program that accepts the user password as an argument.

I would like to prompt the user to type in their password, assign it to a shell variable, and then use that variable to construct the command line of the accessing program (which will of course produce stream output that I will process).

I am a reasonably competent shell programmer in Bourne/Bash, but I don't know how to accept the user input without having it echo to the terminal (or maybe having it echoed using '*' characters).

Can anyone help with this?

This question is related to bash shell scripting sh

The answer is


Turn echo off using stty, then back on again after.


One liner:

read -s -p "Password: " password

Under Linux (and cygwin) this form works in bash and sh. It may not be standard Unix sh, though.

For more info and options, in bash, type "help read".

$ help read
read: read [-ers] [-a array] [-d delim] [-i text] [-n nchars] [-N nchars] [-p prompt] [-t timeout] [-u fd] [name ...]
Read a line from the standard input and split it into fields.
  ...
  -p prompt output the string PROMPT without a trailing newline before
            attempting to read
  ...
  -s                do not echo input coming from a terminal

The -s option of read is not defined in the POSIX standard. See http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/read.html. I wanted something that would work for any POSIX shell, so I wrote a little function that uses stty to disable echo.

#!/bin/sh

# Read secret string
read_secret()
{
    # Disable echo.
    stty -echo

    # Set up trap to ensure echo is enabled before exiting if the script
    # is terminated while echo is disabled.
    trap 'stty echo' EXIT

    # Read secret.
    read "$@"

    # Enable echo.
    stty echo
    trap - EXIT

    # Print a newline because the newline entered by the user after
    # entering the passcode is not echoed. This ensures that the
    # next line of output begins at a new line.
    echo
}

This function behaves quite similar to the read command. Here is a simple usage of read followed by similar usage of read_secret. The input to read_secret appears empty because it was not echoed to the terminal.

[susam@cube ~]$ read a b c
foo \bar baz \qux
[susam@cube ~]$ echo a=$a b=$b c=$c
a=foo b=bar c=baz qux
[susam@cube ~]$ unset a b c
[susam@cube ~]$ read_secret a b c

[susam@cube ~]$ echo a=$a b=$b c=$c
a=foo b=bar c=baz qux
[susam@cube ~]$ unset a b c

Here is another that uses the -r option to preserve the backslashes in the input. This works because the read_secret function defined above passes all arguments it receives to the read command.

[susam@cube ~]$ read -r a b c
foo \bar baz \qux
[susam@cube ~]$ echo a=$a b=$b c=$c
a=foo b=\bar c=baz \qux
[susam@cube ~]$ unset a b c
[susam@cube ~]$ read_secret -r a b c

[susam@cube ~]$ echo a=$a b=$b c=$c
a=foo b=\bar c=baz \qux
[susam@cube ~]$ unset a b c

Finally, here is an example that shows how to use the read_secret function to read a password in a POSIX compliant manner.

printf "Password: "
read_secret password
# Do something with $password here ...

First of all, if anyone is going to store any password in a file, I would make sure it's hashed. It's not the best security, but at least it will not be in plain text.

  1. First, create the password and hash it:

    echo "password123" | md5sum  | cut -d '-' -f 1 > /tmp/secret
    
  2. Now, create your program to use the hash. In this case, this little program receives user input for a password without echoing, and then converts it to hash to be compared with the stored hash. If it matches the stored hash, then access is granted:

    #!/bin/bash
    
    PASSWORD_FILE="/tmp/secret"
    MD5_HASH=$(cat /tmp/secret)
    PASSWORD_WRONG=1
    
    
    while [ $PASSWORD_WRONG -eq 1 ]
     do
        echo "Enter your password:"
        read -s ENTERED_PASSWORD
        if [ "$MD5_HASH" != "$(echo $ENTERED_PASSWORD | md5sum | cut -d '-' -f 1)" ]; then
            echo "Access Deniend: Incorrenct password!. Try again"
        else
            echo "Access Granted"
            PASSWORD_WRONG=0
        fi
    done
    

For anyone needing to prompt for a password, you may be interested in using encpass.sh. This is a script I wrote for similar purposes of capturing a secret at runtime and then encrypting it for subsequent occasions. Subsequent runs do not prompt for the password as it will just use the encrypted value from disk.

It stores the encrypted passwords in a hidden folder under the user's home directory or in a custom folder that you can define through the environment variable ENCPASS_HOME_DIR. It is designed to be POSIX compliant and has an MIT License, so it can be used even in corporate enterprise environments. My company, Plyint LLC, maintains the script and occasionally releases updates. Pull requests are also welcome, if you find an issue. :)

To use it in your scripts simply source encpass.sh in your script and call the get_secret function. I'm including a copy of the script below for easy visibility.

#!/bin/sh
################################################################################
# Copyright (c) 2020 Plyint, LLC <[email protected]>. All Rights Reserved.
# This file is licensed under the MIT License (MIT). 
# Please see LICENSE.txt for more information.
# 
# DESCRIPTION: 
# This script allows a user to encrypt a password (or any other secret) at 
# runtime and then use it, decrypted, within a script.  This prevents shoulder 
# surfing passwords and avoids storing the password in plain text, which could 
# inadvertently be sent to or discovered by an individual at a later date.
#
# This script generates an AES 256 bit symmetric key for each script (or user-
# defined bucket) that stores secrets.  This key will then be used to encrypt 
# all secrets for that script or bucket.  encpass.sh sets up a directory 
# (.encpass) under the user's home directory where keys and secrets will be 
# stored.
#
# For further details, see README.md or run "./encpass ?" from the command line.
#
################################################################################

encpass_checks() {
    if [ -n "$ENCPASS_CHECKS" ]; then
        return
    fi

    if [ ! -x "$(command -v openssl)" ]; then
        echo "Error: OpenSSL is not installed or not accessible in the current path." \
            "Please install it and try again." >&2
        exit 1
    fi

    if [ -z "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR" ]; then
        ENCPASS_HOME_DIR=$(encpass_get_abs_filename ~)/.encpass
    fi

    if [ ! -d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR" ]; then
        mkdir -m 700 "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR"
        mkdir -m 700 "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys"
        mkdir -m 700 "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets"
    fi

    if [ "$(basename "$0")" != "encpass.sh" ]; then
        encpass_include_init "$1" "$2"
    fi

    ENCPASS_CHECKS=1
}

# Initializations performed when the script is included by another script
encpass_include_init() {
    if [ -n "$1" ] && [ -n "$2" ]; then
        ENCPASS_BUCKET=$1
        ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME=$2
    elif [ -n "$1" ]; then
        ENCPASS_BUCKET=$(basename "$0")
        ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME=$1
    else
        ENCPASS_BUCKET=$(basename "$0")
        ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME="password"
    fi
}

encpass_generate_private_key() {
    ENCPASS_KEY_DIR="$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/$ENCPASS_BUCKET"

    if [ ! -d "$ENCPASS_KEY_DIR" ]; then
        mkdir -m 700 "$ENCPASS_KEY_DIR"
    fi

    if [ ! -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_DIR/private.key" ]; then
        (umask 0377 && printf "%s" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" >"$ENCPASS_KEY_DIR/private.key")
    fi
}

encpass_get_private_key_abs_name() {
    ENCPASS_PRIVATE_KEY_ABS_NAME="$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/$ENCPASS_BUCKET/private.key"

    if [ "$1" != "nogenerate" ]; then 
        if [ ! -f "$ENCPASS_PRIVATE_KEY_ABS_NAME" ]; then
            encpass_generate_private_key
        fi
    fi
}

encpass_get_secret_abs_name() {
    ENCPASS_SECRET_ABS_NAME="$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/$ENCPASS_BUCKET/$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME.enc"

    if [ "$3" != "nocreate" ]; then 
        if [ ! -f "$ENCPASS_SECRET_ABS_NAME" ]; then
            set_secret "$1" "$2"
        fi
    fi
}

get_secret() {
    encpass_checks "$1" "$2"
    encpass_get_private_key_abs_name
    encpass_get_secret_abs_name "$1" "$2"
    encpass_decrypt_secret
}

set_secret() {
    encpass_checks "$1" "$2"

    if [ "$3" != "reuse" ] || { [ -z "$ENCPASS_SECRET_INPUT" ] && [ -z "$ENCPASS_CSECRET_INPUT" ]; }; then
        echo "Enter $ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME:" >&2
        stty -echo
        read -r ENCPASS_SECRET_INPUT
        stty echo
        echo "Confirm $ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME:" >&2
        stty -echo
        read -r ENCPASS_CSECRET_INPUT
        stty echo
    fi

    if [ "$ENCPASS_SECRET_INPUT" = "$ENCPASS_CSECRET_INPUT" ]; then
        encpass_get_private_key_abs_name
        ENCPASS_SECRET_DIR="$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/$ENCPASS_BUCKET"

        if [ ! -d "$ENCPASS_SECRET_DIR" ]; then
            mkdir -m 700 "$ENCPASS_SECRET_DIR"
        fi

        printf "%s" "$(openssl rand -hex 16)" >"$ENCPASS_SECRET_DIR/$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME.enc"

        ENCPASS_OPENSSL_IV="$(cat "$ENCPASS_SECRET_DIR/$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME.enc")"

        echo "$ENCPASS_SECRET_INPUT" | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -e -a -iv \
            "$ENCPASS_OPENSSL_IV" -K \
            "$(cat "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/$ENCPASS_BUCKET/private.key")" 1>> \
                    "$ENCPASS_SECRET_DIR/$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME.enc"
    else
        echo "Error: secrets do not match.  Please try again." >&2
        exit 1
    fi
}

encpass_get_abs_filename() {
    # $1 : relative filename
    filename="$1"
    parentdir="$(dirname "${filename}")"

    if [ -d "${filename}" ]; then
        cd "${filename}" && pwd
    elif [ -d "${parentdir}" ]; then
        echo "$(cd "${parentdir}" && pwd)/$(basename "${filename}")"
    fi
}

encpass_decrypt_secret() {
    if [ -f "$ENCPASS_PRIVATE_KEY_ABS_NAME" ]; then
        ENCPASS_DECRYPT_RESULT="$(dd if="$ENCPASS_SECRET_ABS_NAME" ibs=1 skip=32 2> /dev/null | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc \
            -d -a -iv "$(head -c 32 "$ENCPASS_SECRET_ABS_NAME")" -K "$(cat "$ENCPASS_PRIVATE_KEY_ABS_NAME")" 2> /dev/null)"
        if [ ! -z "$ENCPASS_DECRYPT_RESULT" ]; then
            echo "$ENCPASS_DECRYPT_RESULT"
        else
            # If a failed unlock command occurred and the user tries to show the secret
            # Present either locked or decrypt command
            if [ -f "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/$ENCPASS_BUCKET/private.lock" ]; then 
            echo "**Locked**"
            else
                # The locked file wasn't present as expected.  Let's display a failure
            echo "Error: Failed to decrypt"
            fi
        fi
    elif [ -f "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/$ENCPASS_BUCKET/private.lock" ]; then
        echo "**Locked**"
    else
        echo "Error: Unable to decrypt. The key file \"$ENCPASS_PRIVATE_KEY_ABS_NAME\" is not present."
    fi
}


##########################################################
# COMMAND LINE MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
# -------------------------------
# If you don't need to manage the secrets for the scripts
# with encpass.sh you can delete all code below this point
# in order to significantly reduce the size of encpass.sh.
# This is useful if you want to bundle encpass.sh with
# your existing scripts and just need the retrieval
# functions.
##########################################################

encpass_show_secret() {
    encpass_checks
    ENCPASS_BUCKET=$1

    encpass_get_private_key_abs_name "nogenerate"

    if [ ! -z "$2" ]; then
        ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME=$2
        encpass_get_secret_abs_name "$1" "$2" "nocreate"
        if [ -z "$ENCPASS_SECRET_ABS_NAME" ]; then
            echo "No secret named $2 found for bucket $1."
            exit 1
        fi

        encpass_decrypt_secret
    else
        ENCPASS_FILE_LIST=$(ls -1 "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR"/secrets/"$1")
        for ENCPASS_F in $ENCPASS_FILE_LIST; do
            ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME=$(basename "$ENCPASS_F" .enc)

            encpass_get_secret_abs_name "$1" "$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME" "nocreate"
            if [ -z "$ENCPASS_SECRET_ABS_NAME" ]; then
                echo "No secret named $ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME found for bucket $1."
                exit 1
            fi

            echo "$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME = $(encpass_decrypt_secret)"
        done
    fi
}

encpass_getche() {
        old=$(stty -g)
        stty raw min 1 time 0
        printf '%s' "$(dd bs=1 count=1 2>/dev/null)"
        stty "$old"
}

encpass_remove() {
    if [ ! -n "$ENCPASS_FORCE_REMOVE" ]; then
        if [ ! -z "$ENCPASS_SECRET" ]; then
            printf "Are you sure you want to remove the secret \"%s\" from bucket \"%s\"? [y/N]" "$ENCPASS_SECRET" "$ENCPASS_BUCKET"
        else
            printf "Are you sure you want to remove the bucket \"%s?\" [y/N]" "$ENCPASS_BUCKET"
        fi

        ENCPASS_CONFIRM="$(encpass_getche)"
        printf "\n"
        if [ "$ENCPASS_CONFIRM" != "Y" ] && [ "$ENCPASS_CONFIRM" != "y" ]; then
            exit 0
        fi
    fi

    if [ ! -z "$ENCPASS_SECRET" ]; then
        rm -f "$1"
        printf "Secret \"%s\" removed from bucket \"%s\".\n" "$ENCPASS_SECRET" "$ENCPASS_BUCKET"
    else
        rm -Rf "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/$ENCPASS_BUCKET"
        rm -Rf "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/$ENCPASS_BUCKET"
        printf "Bucket \"%s\" removed.\n" "$ENCPASS_BUCKET"
    fi
}

encpass_save_err() {
    if read -r x; then
        { printf "%s\n" "$x"; cat; } > "$1"
    elif [ "$x" != "" ]; then
        printf "%s" "$x" > "$1"
    fi
}

encpass_help() {
less << EOF
NAME:
    encpass.sh - Use encrypted passwords in shell scripts

DESCRIPTION: 
    A lightweight solution for using encrypted passwords in shell scripts 
    using OpenSSL. It allows a user to encrypt a password (or any other secret)
    at runtime and then use it, decrypted, within a script. This prevents
    shoulder surfing passwords and avoids storing the password in plain text, 
    within a script, which could inadvertently be sent to or discovered by an 
    individual at a later date.

    This script generates an AES 256 bit symmetric key for each script 
    (or user-defined bucket) that stores secrets. This key will then be used 
    to encrypt all secrets for that script or bucket.

    Subsequent calls to retrieve a secret will not prompt for a secret to be 
    entered as the file with the encrypted value already exists.

    Note: By default, encpass.sh sets up a directory (.encpass) under the 
    user's home directory where keys and secrets will be stored.  This directory
    can be overridden by setting the environment variable ENCPASS_HOME_DIR to a
    directory of your choice.

    ~/.encpass (or the directory specified by ENCPASS_HOME_DIR) will contain 
    the following subdirectories:
      - keys (Holds the private key for each script/bucket)
      - secrets (Holds the secrets stored for each script/bucket)

USAGE:
    To use the encpass.sh script in an existing shell script, source the script 
    and then call the get_secret function.

    Example:

        #!/bin/sh
        . encpass.sh
        password=\$(get_secret)

    When no arguments are passed to the get_secret function,
    then the bucket name is set to the name of the script and
    the secret name is set to "password".

    There are 2 other ways to call get_secret:

      Specify the secret name:
      Ex: \$(get_secret user)
        - bucket name = <script name>
        - secret name = "user"

      Specify both the secret name and bucket name:
      Ex: \$(get_secret personal user)
        - bucket name = "personal"
        - secret name = "user"

    encpass.sh also provides a command line interface to manage the secrets.
    To invoke a command, pass it as an argument to encpass.sh from the shell.

        $ encpass.sh [COMMAND]

    See the COMMANDS section below for a list of available commands.  Wildcard
    handling is implemented for secret and bucket names.  This enables
    performing operations like adding/removing a secret to/from multiple buckets
        at once.

COMMANDS:
    add [-f] <bucket> <secret>
        Add a secret to the specified bucket.  The bucket will be created
        if it does not already exist. If a secret with the same name already
        exists for the specified bucket, then the user will be prompted to
        confirm overwriting the value.  If the -f option is passed, then the
        add operation will perform a forceful overwrite of the value. (i.e. no
        prompt)

    list|ls [<bucket>]
        Display the names of the secrets held in the bucket.  If no bucket
        is specified, then the names of all existing buckets will be
        displayed.

    lock
        Locks all keys used by encpass.sh using a password.  The user
        will be prompted to enter a password and confirm it.  A user
        should take care to securely store the password.  If the password
        is lost then keys can not be unlocked.  When keys are locked,
        secrets can not be retrieved. (e.g. the output of the values
        in the "show" command will be encrypted/garbage)

    remove|rm [-f] <bucket> [<secret>]
        Remove a secret from the specified bucket.  If only a bucket is
        specified then the entire bucket (i.e. all secrets and keys) will
        be removed.  By default the user is asked to confirm the removal of
        the secret or the bucket.  If the -f option is passed then a 
        forceful removal will be performed.  (i.e. no prompt)

    show [<bucket>] [<secret>]
        Show the unencrypted value of the secret from the specified bucket.
        If no secret is specified then all secrets for the bucket are displayed.

    update <bucket> <secret>
        Updates a secret in the specified bucket.  This command is similar
        to using an "add -f" command, but it has a safety check to only 
        proceed if the specified secret exists.  If the secret, does not
        already exist, then an error will be reported. There is no forceable
        update implemented.  Use "add -f" for any required forceable update
        scenarios.

    unlock
        Unlocks all the keys for encpass.sh.  The user will be prompted to 
        enter the password and confirm it.

    dir
        Prints out the current value of the ENCPASS_HOME_DIR environment variable.

    help|--help|usage|--usage|?
        Display this help message.
EOF
}

# Subcommands for cli support
case "$1" in
    add )
        shift
        while getopts ":f" ENCPASS_OPTS; do
            case "$ENCPASS_OPTS" in
                f ) ENCPASS_FORCE_ADD=1;;
            esac
        done

        encpass_checks

        if [ -n "$ENCPASS_FORCE_ADD" ]; then
            shift $((OPTIND-1))
        fi

        if [ ! -z "$1" ] && [ ! -z "$2" ]; then
            # Allow globbing
            # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
            ENCPASS_ADD_LIST="$(ls -1d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/"$1"" 2>/dev/null)"
            if [ -z "$ENCPASS_ADD_LIST" ]; then
                ENCPASS_ADD_LIST="$1"
            fi

            for ENCPASS_ADD_F in $ENCPASS_ADD_LIST; do
                ENCPASS_ADD_DIR="$(basename "$ENCPASS_ADD_F")"
                ENCPASS_BUCKET="$ENCPASS_ADD_DIR"
                if [ ! -n "$ENCPASS_FORCE_ADD" ] && [ -f "$ENCPASS_ADD_F/$2.enc" ]; then
                    echo "Warning: A secret with the name \"$2\" already exists for bucket $ENCPASS_BUCKET."
                    echo "Would you like to overwrite the value? [y/N]"

                    ENCPASS_CONFIRM="$(encpass_getche)"
                    if [ "$ENCPASS_CONFIRM" != "Y" ] && [ "$ENCPASS_CONFIRM" != "y" ]; then
                        continue
                    fi
                fi

                ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME="$2"
                echo "Adding secret \"$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME\" to bucket \"$ENCPASS_BUCKET\"..."
                set_secret "$ENCPASS_BUCKET" "$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME" "reuse"
            done
        else
            echo "Error: A bucket name and secret name must be provided when adding a secret."
            exit 1
        fi
        ;;
    update )
        shift

        encpass_checks
        if [ ! -z "$1" ] && [ ! -z "$2" ]; then

            ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME="$2"
            # Allow globbing
            # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
            ENCPASS_UPDATE_LIST="$(ls -1d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/"$1"" 2>/dev/null)"

            for ENCPASS_UPDATE_F in $ENCPASS_UPDATE_LIST; do
                # Allow globbing
                # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
                if [ -f "$ENCPASS_UPDATE_F/"$2".enc" ]; then
                        ENCPASS_UPDATE_DIR="$(basename "$ENCPASS_UPDATE_F")"
                        ENCPASS_BUCKET="$ENCPASS_UPDATE_DIR"
                        echo "Updating secret \"$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME\" to bucket \"$ENCPASS_BUCKET\"..."
                        set_secret "$ENCPASS_BUCKET" "$ENCPASS_SECRET_NAME" "reuse"
                else
                    echo "Error: A secret with the name \"$2\" does not exist for bucket $1."
                    exit 1
                fi
            done
        else
            echo "Error: A bucket name and secret name must be provided when updating a secret."
            exit 1
        fi
        ;;
    rm|remove )
        shift
        encpass_checks

        while getopts ":f" ENCPASS_OPTS; do
            case "$ENCPASS_OPTS" in
                f ) ENCPASS_FORCE_REMOVE=1;;
            esac
        done

        if [ -n "$ENCPASS_FORCE_REMOVE" ]; then
            shift $((OPTIND-1))
        fi

        if [ -z "$1" ]; then 
            echo "Error: A bucket must be specified for removal."
        fi

        # Allow globbing
        # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
        ENCPASS_REMOVE_BKT_LIST="$(ls -1d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/"$1"" 2>/dev/null)"
        if [ ! -z "$ENCPASS_REMOVE_BKT_LIST" ]; then
            for ENCPASS_REMOVE_B in $ENCPASS_REMOVE_BKT_LIST; do

                ENCPASS_BUCKET="$(basename "$ENCPASS_REMOVE_B")"
                if [ ! -z "$2" ]; then
                    # Removing secrets for a specified bucket
                    # Allow globbing
                    # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
                    ENCPASS_REMOVE_LIST="$(ls -1p "$ENCPASS_REMOVE_B/"$2".enc" 2>/dev/null)"

                    if [ -z "$ENCPASS_REMOVE_LIST" ]; then
                        echo "Error: No secrets found for $2 in bucket $ENCPASS_BUCKET."
                        exit 1
                    fi

                    for ENCPASS_REMOVE_F in $ENCPASS_REMOVE_LIST; do
                        ENCPASS_SECRET="$2"
                        encpass_remove "$ENCPASS_REMOVE_F"
                    done
                else
                    # Removing a specified bucket
                    encpass_remove
                fi

            done
        else
            echo "Error: The bucket named $1 does not exist."
            exit 1
        fi
        ;;
    show )
        shift
        encpass_checks
        if [ -z "$1" ]; then
            ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR="*"
        else
            ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR=$1
        fi

        if [ ! -z "$2" ]; then
            # Allow globbing
            # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
            if [ -f "$(encpass_get_abs_filename "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/$ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR/"$2".enc")" ]; then
                encpass_show_secret "$ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR" "$2"
            fi
        else
            # Allow globbing
            # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
            ENCPASS_SHOW_LIST="$(ls -1d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/"$ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR"" 2>/dev/null)"

            if [ -z "$ENCPASS_SHOW_LIST" ]; then
                if [ "$ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR" = "*" ]; then
                    echo "Error: No buckets exist."
                else
                    echo "Error: Bucket $1 does not exist."
                fi
                exit 1
            fi

            for ENCPASS_SHOW_F in $ENCPASS_SHOW_LIST; do
                ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR="$(basename "$ENCPASS_SHOW_F")"
                echo "$ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR:"
                encpass_show_secret "$ENCPASS_SHOW_DIR"
                echo " "
            done
        fi
        ;;
    ls|list )
        shift
        encpass_checks
        if [ ! -z "$1" ]; then
            # Allow globbing
            # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
            ENCPASS_FILE_LIST="$(ls -1p "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/"$1"" 2>/dev/null)"

            if [ -z "$ENCPASS_FILE_LIST" ]; then
                # Allow globbing
                # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
                ENCPASS_DIR_EXISTS="$(ls -d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/"$1"" 2>/dev/null)"
                if [ ! -z "$ENCPASS_DIR_EXISTS" ]; then
                    echo "Bucket $1 is empty."
                else
                    echo "Error: Bucket $1 does not exist."
                fi
                exit 1
            fi

            ENCPASS_NL=""
            for ENCPASS_F in $ENCPASS_FILE_LIST; do
                if [ -d "${ENCPASS_F%:}" ]; then
                    printf "$ENCPASS_NL%s\n" "$(basename "$ENCPASS_F")"
                    ENCPASS_NL="\n"
                else
                    printf "%s\n" "$(basename "$ENCPASS_F" .enc)"
                fi
            done
        else
            # Allow globbing
            # shellcheck disable=SC2027,SC2086
            ENCPASS_BUCKET_LIST="$(ls -1p "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/secrets/"$1"" 2>/dev/null)"
            for ENCPASS_C in $ENCPASS_BUCKET_LIST; do
                if [ -d "${ENCPASS_C%:}" ]; then
                    printf "\n%s" "\n$(basename "$ENCPASS_C")"
                else
                    basename "$ENCPASS_C" .enc
                fi
            done
        fi
        ;;
    lock )
        shift
        encpass_checks

        echo "************************!!!WARNING!!!*************************" >&2
        echo "* You are about to lock your keys with a password.           *" >&2
        echo "* You will not be able to use your secrets again until you   *" >&2
        echo "* unlock the keys with the same password. It is important    *" >&2
        echo "* that you securely store the password, so you can recall it *" >&2
        echo "* in the future.  If you forget your password you will no    *" >&2
        echo "* longer be able to access your secrets.                     *" >&2
        echo "************************!!!WARNING!!!*************************" >&2

        printf "\n%s\n" "About to lock keys held in directory $ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/"

        printf "\nEnter Password to lock keys:" >&2
        stty -echo
        read -r ENCPASS_KEY_PASS
        printf "\nConfirm Password:" >&2
        read -r ENCPASS_CKEY_PASS
        printf "\n"
        stty echo

        if [ -z "$ENCPASS_KEY_PASS" ]; then
            echo "Error: You must supply a password value."
            exit 1
        fi

        if [ "$ENCPASS_KEY_PASS" = "$ENCPASS_CKEY_PASS" ]; then
            ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_LOCKED=0
            ENCPASS_KEYS_LIST="$(ls -1d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/"*"/" 2>/dev/null)"
            for ENCPASS_KEY_F in $ENCPASS_KEYS_LIST; do

                if [ -d "${ENCPASS_KEY_F%:}" ]; then
                    ENCPASS_KEY_NAME="$(basename "$ENCPASS_KEY_F")"
                    ENCPASS_KEY_VALUE=""
                    if [ -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key" ]; then
                        ENCPASS_KEY_VALUE="$(cat "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key")"
                        if [ ! -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock" ]; then
                        echo "Locking key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME..."
                        else
                          echo "Error: The key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME appears to have been previously locked."
                            echo "       The current key file may hold a bad value. Exiting to avoid encrypting"
                            echo "       a bad value and overwriting the lock file."
                            exit 1
                        fi
                    else
                        echo "Error: Private key file ${ENCPASS_KEY_F}private.key missing for bucket $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME."
                        exit 1
                    fi
                    if [ ! -z "$ENCPASS_KEY_VALUE" ]; then
                        openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pbkdf2 -iter 10000 -salt -in "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key" -out "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock" -k "$ENCPASS_KEY_PASS"
                        if [ -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key" ] && [ -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock" ]; then
                            # Both the key and lock file exist.  We can remove the key file now
                            rm -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key"
                            echo "Locked key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME."
                            ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_LOCKED=$(( ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_LOCKED + 1 ))
                        else
                            echo "Error: The key fle and/or lock file were not found as expected for key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME."
                        fi
                    else
                        echo "Error: No key value found for the $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME key."
                        exit 1
                    fi
                fi
            done
            echo "Locked $ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_LOCKED keys."
        else
            echo "Error: Passwords do not match."
        fi
        ;;
    unlock )
        shift
        encpass_checks

        printf "%s\n" "About to unlock keys held in the $ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/ directory."

        printf "\nEnter Password to unlock keys: " >&2
        stty -echo
        read -r ENCPASS_KEY_PASS
        printf "\n"
        stty echo

        if [ ! -z "$ENCPASS_KEY_PASS" ]; then
            ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_UNLOCKED=0
            ENCPASS_KEYS_LIST="$(ls -1d "$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR/keys/"*"/" 2>/dev/null)"
            for ENCPASS_KEY_F in $ENCPASS_KEYS_LIST; do

                if [ -d "${ENCPASS_KEY_F%:}" ]; then
                    ENCPASS_KEY_NAME="$(basename "$ENCPASS_KEY_F")"
                    echo "Unlocking key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME..."
                    if [ -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key" ] && [ ! -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock" ]; then
                        echo "Error: Key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME appears to be unlocked already."
                        exit 1
                    fi

                    if [ -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock" ]; then
                        # Remove the failed file in case previous decryption attempts were unsuccessful
                        rm -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/failed" 2>/dev/null

                        # Decrypt key. Log any failure to the "failed" file.
                        openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -d -pbkdf2 -iter 10000 -salt \
                            -in "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock" -out "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key" \
                            -k "$ENCPASS_KEY_PASS" 2>&1 | encpass_save_err "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/failed"

                        if [ ! -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/failed" ]; then
                            # No failure has occurred.
                          if [ -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.key" ] && [ -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock" ]; then
                              # Both the key and lock file exist.  We can remove the lock file now.
                              rm -f "$ENCPASS_KEY_F/private.lock"
                              echo "Unlocked key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME."
                              ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_UNLOCKED=$(( ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_UNLOCKED + 1 ))
                          else
                              echo "Error: The key file and/or lock file were not found as expected for key $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME."
                          fi
                        else
                          printf "Error: Failed to unlock key %s.\n" "$ENCPASS_KEY_NAME"
                            printf "       Please view %sfailed for details.\n" "$ENCPASS_KEY_F"
                        fi
                    else
                        echo "Error: No lock file found for the $ENCPASS_KEY_NAME key."
                    fi
                fi
            done
            echo "Unlocked $ENCPASS_NUM_KEYS_UNLOCKED keys."
        else
            echo "No password entered."
        fi
        ;;
    dir )
        shift
        encpass_checks
        echo "ENCPASS_HOME_DIR=$ENCPASS_HOME_DIR"
        ;;
    help|--help|usage|--usage|\? )
        encpass_checks
        encpass_help
        ;;
    * )
        if [ ! -z "$1" ]; then
            echo "Command not recognized. See \"encpass.sh help\" for a list commands."
            exit 1
        fi
        ;;
esac

This link is help in defining, * How to read password from use without echo-ing it back to terminal * How to replace each character with * -character.

https://www.tutorialkart.com/bash-shell-scripting/bash-read-username-and-password/


A POSIX compliant answer. Notice the use of /bin/sh instead of /bin/bash. (It does work with bash, but it does not require bash.)

#!/bin/sh
stty -echo
printf "Password: "
read PASSWORD
stty echo
printf "\n"

You can also prompt for a password without setting a variable in the current shell by doing something like this:

$(read -s;echo $REPLY)

For instance:

my-command --set password=$(read -sp "Password: ";echo $REPLY)

You can add several of these prompted values with line break, doing this:

my-command --set user=$(read -sp "`echo $'\n '`User: ";echo $REPLY) --set password=$(read -sp "`echo $'\n '`Password: ";echo $REPLY)

I found to be the the askpass command useful

password=$(/lib/cryptsetup/askpass "Give a password")

Every input character is replaced by *. See: Give a password ****


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