In Linux, there is a privilege for users like sudo privilege. In case of using the sudo command on the terminal, you will be asked for a password. When you type a password, you will not see any visual feedback like an asterisk or anything.

Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to perform related Linux system packages queries.

In this context, we shall look into how to display asterisks as feedback when you type the password in the terminal in Linux.

An example of displaying Asterisks while running commands

Here, we are trying to run the command "sudo apt update" then it asks for a password. After entering the password, there is no visual feedback and it shows blank on the password section:

$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for user:

But if you want some visual feedback like an asterisk on the password field, it can be sorted out with small changes on the /etc/sudoers file. You can backup this file first before changing it with the following command:

$ sudo cp /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.bak

How to show asterisk while typing sudo password on Linux ?

Now, to edit the /etc/sudoers file, you can simply run the following command:

$ sudo visudo

You must have to search the following line and do some changes on that section:

Defaults env_reset

Now append pwfeedback on this line for showing the asterisk on the password section:

Defaults env_reset, pwfeedback

Press ctrl + x to save the changes and then y to exit.

Now you can try to run the previous command and check if you can see any visual feedback on the password section after using sudo:

$ sudo apt update

Finally, you can see the asterisk as a visual on the password after some changes on the /etc/sudoers file.

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