In a previous post, we described how you can view passwords that appear as hashes. Today, we'll look at alternative ways that can display passwords that you've forgotten and are impossible to remember.
1. BulletsPassView by Nirsoft
BulletsPassView is an application from Nirsoft that allows the user to see passwords behind the dots and asterisks in Windows. The program works with Windows and Internet Explorer password boxes. It does not work with third-party applications such as Firefox, Thunderbird, or Google Chrome that use other means to hide passwords. It does work with many FTP Clients and other programs that use the native way of hiding passwords.
BulletsPassView is the successor to the well-known Asterisks Logger and supports Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8 (not tested on Windows 10), Internet Explorer. The application also has command line options.
Bonus Tip: Nirsoft has a whole package of Windows password recovery tools in a zip file, The password to extract the .zip is nirsoft123!
Warning: Some Antivirus programs may give False Positives for the tools included in the zip. Not applicable…
2. Use the Show Password on Focus extension
Another way to display passwords in your browser is to use an extension. As you might expect, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have thousands of add-ons, and some of them display passwords hidden behind dots. (Of course, you can also view passwords in your browser settings, but the extensions below make things easier.)
A simple and effective extension for Chrome is Show Password on Focus, which will display the characters whenever you type into a password box or click on it with your mouse.
The add-on for Firefox is called Show Password and works slightly differently, because you have to click an icon in the add-ons bar, which will either enable or disable the display of characters in the password field.
3. Reveal codes using Javascript
It's the way we described in a previous post. It will reveal any protected password with trailing slashes in your browser. It comes bundled with the above utilities because it works in browsers the above tools can't do anything. Just copy the entire string from the box below and paste it into your browser's address bar. If there is a hidden password field, a small pop-up window will show you what's hidden behind the slashes.
javascript:(function(){var s,F,j,f,i; s = ""; F = document.forms; for(j=0; jThis method works with all browsers, but not with Firefox, which has Javascript disabled in the browser’s address bar. Of course, you can re-enable it.
To do so, type about:config in the Firefox address bar, promise to pay attention in the box that pops up, and search for “noscript.allowURLBarJS.” Double-click the entry to change it from False to True.
The above method may not work in Chrome as pressing Enter will cause Chrome to search. One way to make it work is to use the following bookmark. Save it to your browser and use it when you need it.
4. Reveal browser passwords through Web code
The method below has been successfully tested in the latest Chrome, Opera, and Firefox browsers.
Assuming you are on a webpage with a hidden password, double click on the password to highlight it, then right click on it and select 'Inspect'. In newer versions of Firefox you will also need to click on the control panel button located at the bottom left to view the html content (Alt + M).
After viewing the html content of the page, the password line should already be highlighted. As shown in the images below, in this line there is the value: “Password” between ellipses. Double-click on “Password”, completely delete the word and look at the login screen… Your password is there…
Internet Explorer does not have an inspector window, but it does have a Developer Tools window by pressing the F12 key. Search again for the value “password” and delete the word. You will see all the passwords you want by following the same procedure.
