The behavior you’re observing—where the password asterisks (********) are replaced with spaces after pressing <kbd>Enter</kbd>—is a visual effect in the terminal and is not related to sudo itself. This is how most terminals handle password input for security and usability reasons: the password is not echoed back, and the asterisks (or lack thereof) are just a visual cue.
Why does this happen?
The terminal hides your password input for security.
The asterisks (or spaces) are just a placeholder and do not affect the actual password being entered.
After pressing <kbd>Enter</kbd>, the terminal clears the line for the next output.
Can you prevent this?
No, this is a standard terminal behavior and cannot be changed for sudo password prompts. The password is still correctly processed, regardless of the visual effect.
Workarounds (if you want to see something else)
Use a terminal emulator that handles password input differently (though most behave this way).
If you’re scripting or automating, use sudo -S to read the password from stdin, but this is not recommended for interactive use due to security risks.
Example of sudo -S (for scripting only)
bash
echo "mypassword" | sudo -S whoami
Warning: This is insecure for interactive use, as it exposes the password in your command history and process list.
In summary: This is normal terminal behavior and cannot be changed for sudo password prompts. The password is still processed correctly.
Feb 11, 1:29pm
This is a shared conversation and may include unverified content that doesn't reflect Mistral AI's views. Login to resume chatting.