How to pass argument shown as asterisk to main function of a Java application

Question

I have a Java command line application which needs to take a username and password as arguments passed in the main function.

Is there a way to make the password shown as asterisk when the user types their password?

Thanks.

Not that I am aware. This is the domain of the shell that the user is using... — MadProgrammer, Nov 07 '13 at 03:31
It is possible, but this will depend on the terminal used. What are you using (DOS, Bash, etc.)? — Paul Draper, Nov 07 '13 at 03:31

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

There is no way that I know of to pass a hidden password to the main method as a command line argument without some kind of wrapper program.

However, using System.console().readPassword() or System.console().readPassword(String fmt, Object... args) the program can read user input from the command line without showing what the user is typing.

Edit: I don't know of any existing thing in java that replaces all the characters in the password with asterisks as the user types them but doing such a thing would require making it so that the command line would send program the characters individually instead of all together at a line ending.
Nothing easy or portable but more information on that here.

How to pass argument shown as asterisk to main function of a Java application

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