Password masking console application

Question

I tried the following code...

string pass = "";
Console.Write("Enter your password: ");
ConsoleKeyInfo key;

do
{
    key = Console.ReadKey(true);

    // Backspace Should Not Work
    if (key.Key != ConsoleKey.Backspace)
    {
        pass += key.KeyChar;
        Console.Write("*");
    }
    else
    {
        Console.Write("\b");
    }
}
// Stops Receving Keys Once Enter is Pressed
while (key.Key != ConsoleKey.Enter);

Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("The Password You entered is : " + pass);

But this way the backspace functionality doesn't work while typing the password. Any suggestion?

Answer 1

Complete solution, vanilla C# .net 3.5+

Cut & Paste :)

    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Text;

    namespace ConsoleReadPasswords
    {
        class Program
        {
            static void Main(string[] args)
            {
                Console.Write("Password:");

                string password = Orb.App.Console.ReadPassword();

                Console.WriteLine("Sorry - I just can't keep a secret!");
                Console.WriteLine("Your password was:\n<Password>{0}</Password>", password);

                Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }
    }

    namespace Orb.App
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Adds some nice help to the console. Static extension methods don't exist (probably for a good reason) so the next best thing is congruent naming.
        /// </summary>
        static public class Console
        {
            /// <summary>
            /// Like System.Console.ReadLine(), only with a mask.
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="mask">a <c>char</c> representing your choice of console mask</param>
            /// <returns>the string the user typed in </returns>
            public static string ReadPassword(char mask)
            {
                const int ENTER = 13, BACKSP = 8, CTRLBACKSP = 127;
                int[] FILTERED = { 0, 27, 9, 10 /*, 32 space, if you care */ }; // const

                var pass = new Stack<char>();
                char chr = (char)0;

                while ((chr = System.Console.ReadKey(true).KeyChar) != ENTER)
                {
                    if (chr == BACKSP)
                    {
                        if (pass.Count > 0)
                        {
                            System.Console.Write("\b \b");
                            pass.Pop();
                        }
                    }
                    else if (chr == CTRLBACKSP)
                    {
                        while (pass.Count > 0)
                        {
                            System.Console.Write("\b \b");
                            pass.Pop();
                        }
                    }
                    else if (FILTERED.Count(x => chr == x) > 0) { }
                    else
                    {
                        pass.Push((char)chr);
                        System.Console.Write(mask);
                    }
                }

                System.Console.WriteLine();

                return new string(pass.Reverse().ToArray());
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Like System.Console.ReadLine(), only with a mask.
            /// </summary>
            /// <returns>the string the user typed in </returns>
            public static string ReadPassword()
            {
                return Orb.App.Console.ReadPassword('*');
            }
        }
    }

Answer 2

Mine ignores control characters and handles line wrapping:

public static string ReadLineMasked(char mask = '*')
{
    var sb = new StringBuilder();
    ConsoleKeyInfo keyInfo;
    while ((keyInfo = Console.ReadKey(true)).Key != ConsoleKey.Enter)
    {
        if (!char.IsControl(keyInfo.KeyChar))
        {
            sb.Append(keyInfo.KeyChar);
            Console.Write(mask);
        }
        else if (keyInfo.Key == ConsoleKey.Backspace && sb.Length > 0)
        {
            sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1);

            if (Console.CursorLeft == 0)
            {
                Console.SetCursorPosition(Console.BufferWidth - 1, Console.CursorTop - 1);
                Console.Write(' ');
                Console.SetCursorPosition(Console.BufferWidth - 1, Console.CursorTop - 1);
            }
            else Console.Write("\b \b");
        }
    }
    Console.WriteLine();
    return sb.ToString();
}

Answer 3

Reading console input is hard, you need to handle special keys like Ctrl, Alt, also cursor keys and Backspace/Delete. On some keyboard layouts, like Swedish Ctrl is even needed to enter keys that exist directly on US keyboard. I believe that trying to handle this using the "low-level" Console.ReadKey(true) is just very hard, so the easiest and most robust way is to just to disable "console input echo" during entering password using a bit of WINAPI.

The sample below is based on answer to Read a password from std::cin question.

    private enum StdHandle
    {
        Input = -10,
        Output = -11,
        Error = -12,
    }

    private enum ConsoleMode
    {
        ENABLE_ECHO_INPUT = 4
    }

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(StdHandle nStdHandle);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    private static extern bool GetConsoleMode(IntPtr hConsoleHandle, out int lpMode);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    private static extern bool SetConsoleMode(IntPtr hConsoleHandle, int dwMode);

    public static string ReadPassword()
    {
        IntPtr stdInputHandle = GetStdHandle(StdHandle.Input);
        if (stdInputHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException("No console input");
        }

        int previousConsoleMode;
        if (!GetConsoleMode(stdInputHandle , out previousConsoleMode))
        {
            throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error(), "Could not get console mode.");
        }

        // disable console input echo
        if (!SetConsoleMode(stdInputHandle , previousConsoleMode & ~(int)ConsoleMode.ENABLE_ECHO_INPUT))
        {
            throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error(), "Could not disable console input echo.");
        }

        // just read the password using standard Console.ReadLine()
        string password = Console.ReadLine();

        // reset console mode to previous
        if (!SetConsoleMode(stdInputHandle , previousConsoleMode))
        {
            throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error(), "Could not reset console mode.");
        }

        return password;
    }

Answer 4

I have updated Ronnie's version after spending way too much time trying to enter a password only to find out that I had my CAPS LOCK on!

With this version what ever the message is in _CapsLockMessage will "float" at the end of the typing area and will be displayed in red.

This version takes a bit more code and does require a polling loop. On my computer CPU usage about 3% to 4%, but one could always add a small Sleep() value to decrease CPU usage if needed.

    private const string _CapsLockMessage = " CAPS LOCK";

    /// <summary>
    /// Like System.Console.ReadLine(), only with a mask.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="mask">a <c>char</c> representing your choice of console mask</param>
    /// <returns>the string the user typed in</returns>
    public static string ReadLineMasked(char mask = '*')
    {
        // Taken from http://stackoverflow.com/a/19770778/486660
        var consoleLine = new StringBuilder();
        ConsoleKeyInfo keyInfo;
        bool isDone;
        bool isAlreadyLocked;
        bool isCapsLockOn;
        int cursorLeft;
        int cursorTop;
        ConsoleColor originalForegroundColor;

        isDone = false;
        isAlreadyLocked = Console.CapsLock;

        while (isDone == false)
        {
            isCapsLockOn = Console.CapsLock;
            if (isCapsLockOn != isAlreadyLocked)
            {
                if (isCapsLockOn)
                {
                    cursorLeft = Console.CursorLeft;
                    cursorTop = Console.CursorTop;
                    originalForegroundColor = Console.ForegroundColor;
                    Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
                    Console.Write("{0}", _CapsLockMessage);
                    Console.SetCursorPosition(cursorLeft, cursorTop);
                    Console.ForegroundColor = originalForegroundColor;
                }
                else
                {
                    cursorLeft = Console.CursorLeft;
                    cursorTop = Console.CursorTop;
                    Console.Write("{0}", string.Empty.PadRight(_CapsLockMessage.Length));
                    Console.SetCursorPosition(cursorLeft, cursorTop);
                }
                isAlreadyLocked = isCapsLockOn;
            }

            if (Console.KeyAvailable)
            {
                keyInfo = Console.ReadKey(intercept: true);

                if (keyInfo.Key == ConsoleKey.Enter)
                {
                    isDone = true;
                    continue;
                }

                if (!char.IsControl(keyInfo.KeyChar))
                {
                    consoleLine.Append(keyInfo.KeyChar);
                    Console.Write(mask);
                }
                else if (keyInfo.Key == ConsoleKey.Backspace && consoleLine.Length > 0)
                {
                    consoleLine.Remove(consoleLine.Length - 1, 1);

                    if (Console.CursorLeft == 0)
                    {
                        Console.SetCursorPosition(Console.BufferWidth - 1, Console.CursorTop - 1);
                        Console.Write(' ');
                        Console.SetCursorPosition(Console.BufferWidth - 1, Console.CursorTop - 1);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Console.Write("\b \b");
                    }
                }

                if (isCapsLockOn)
                {
                    cursorLeft = Console.CursorLeft;
                    cursorTop = Console.CursorTop;
                    originalForegroundColor = Console.ForegroundColor;
                    Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
                    Console.Write("{0}", _CapsLockMessage);
                    Console.CursorLeft = cursorLeft;
                    Console.CursorTop = cursorTop;
                    Console.ForegroundColor = originalForegroundColor;
                }
            }
        }

        Console.WriteLine();

        return consoleLine.ToString();
    }

Answer 5

 string pass = "";
 Console.WriteLine("Enter your password: ");
 ConsoleKeyInfo key;

 do {
  key = Console.ReadKey(true);

  if (key.Key != ConsoleKey.Backspace) {
   pass += key.KeyChar;
   Console.Write("*");
  } else {
   Console.Write("\b \b");
   char[] pas = pass.ToCharArray();
   string temp = "";
   for (int i = 0; i < pass.Length - 1; i++) {
    temp += pas[i];
   }
   pass = temp;
  }
 }
 // Stops Receving Keys Once Enter is Pressed
 while (key.Key != ConsoleKey.Enter);

 Console.WriteLine();
 Console.WriteLine("The Password You entered is : " + pass);

Answer 6

You could append your keys to an accumulating linked list.

When a backspace key is received, remove the last key from the list.

When you receive the enter key, collapse your list into a string and do the rest of your work.