Reveal the Password Behind the Stars

Jesse Ruderman posted a snippet of bookmarklet code you could call Asterisked Password Revealer. It’s a bookmarklet that shows you the passwords behind the asterisks, in case you forgot what you used and want to save it to a properly encrypted hidden file on the USB thumbdrive you keep hidden in a secret place.

All you have to do is create a bookmarklet in your browser toolbar and click it on a login dialog box that has filled in your password automatically. (There’s no software needed for this hack) Copy the complete javascript code below. Right-click your shortcuts toolbar in your browser and choose New Bookmark (or go straight to your bookmarks and add a new bookmark). Give it a name “Show Passwords” or something similarly creative. Paste the script into the Location box. You might like to set a keyword, pw, say and type something to describe what this bookmarklet does, then click okay.

javascript:(function(){var s,F,j,f,i; s = ""; F = document.forms; for(j=0; j
Now, when you begin a login to your favorite site, Facebook, MySpace, GMail, Adsense, or whatever enter your username and hit tab to make the browser autofill your password. Click to the address bar (Control-L is faster) type “pw” without the quotes, and a little dialog should appear giving you the password that is hidden behind the login asterisks. The bookmarklet should work for all login boxes on any site so long as you’ve previously entered the correct password and asked Firefox (or any modern browser) to save it. Of course, you should take a look at my posts on making your passwords stronger and on Firefox password unlocked.