Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!kramden.acf.nyu.edu!brnstnd
From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals
Subject: Re: Changing tty drivers (was Re: Finding Passwords)
Message-ID: <11552:Oct1721:36:1390@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 17 Oct 90 21:36:13 GMT
References: <24752@adm.BRL.MIL> <1990Oct16.173128.7280@onion.pdx.com> <KGH600D@xds13.ferranti.com>
Organization: IR
Lines: 15

In article <KGH600D@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
> There do exist terminals for which ^G is not a Bell. On some ADM terminals
> it is a *transmit screen* command! Just the sort of thing to put in the
> password prompt.

Well, then, I guess we'll have to use some character that all terminals
will accept without strange modifications. Like... e. Yeah, that's it.
e. Double all e's, except those output by root processes. Note that all
unprintable characters must be trashed, since otherwise they could be
used to mask one of the repeated characters.

I suggest that it's better to use existing utilities than to muck in
weird and wonderful ways with the kernel.

---Dan