Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon, releasing April 23, 2026) breaks a 46-year Unix tradition by displaying asterisks when users type their sudo passwords. For more than four decades, typing a password after a sudo prompt produced nothing visible on screen—no asterisks, no dots, no moving cursor. The blank void was intentional: a guard against “shoulder surfing,” the practice of counting keystrokes to guess a password’s length. Now, Ubuntu is ending that tradition, and the Linux community is furious.
This change stems from sudo-rs, the Rust-based sudo rewrite that Ubuntu adopted in version 25.10. When sudo-rs enabled password feedback by default in mid-February 2026, Canonical cherry-picked the patch for Ubuntu 26.04. Every developer uses sudo daily, making this one of the most visible changes in Ubuntu’s history.
The End of Silent Passwords
Starting April 23, Ubuntu 26.04 will display an asterisk for each character you type at a sudo prompt. The change is simple: pwfeedback is now enabled by default in sudo-rs. What was once a blank, silent void now shows visual feedback.
The sudo-rs developers defended the decision bluntly: “This fixes a major UX pain point for new users. Security is theoretically worse since password lengths are exposed to people watching your screen, but this is an infinitesimal benefit far outweighed by the UX issue.” According to Phoronix coverage, Ubuntu developer bamf0 added that “receiving visual feedback to user input helps mitigate typing errors.”
The community’s reaction was immediate. A bug report titled “WHY?! This goes against DECADES of NOT ECHOING THE LENGTH OF THE PASSWORD” was filed within hours. Ubuntu marked it “Won’t Fix.” The decision is final.
Security Theater or Real Risk?
The original rationale for silent passwords was preventing shoulder surfing—someone watching your screen to count keystrokes and determine password length. Sudo was created in 1980 by Bob Coggeshall and Cliff Spencer at SUNY Buffalo, when shared terminals in universities and offices were common. Physical security was a real concern. Someone standing behind you could count asterisks and narrow down password possibilities.
However, that threat model is obsolete. Anyone close enough to count asterisks on your screen is close enough to hear your keystrokes, watch your fingers, or use a camera. Moreover, most sudo passwords are identical to login passwords—already visible as dots on graphical login screens. Consequently, the security benefit of hiding asterisks in the terminal is theater, not substance.
Here’s the real issue: password reuse. If your sudo password matches your login password (which it probably does), an attacker doesn’t need to count asterisks. They already know the length from watching you log in. Therefore, the 46-year tradition protected against a threat that barely exists while creating confusion for new users who think sudo is broken when nothing appears on screen.
How to Disable Ubuntu 26.04 Password Feedback
Organizations with strict security policies or users who prefer the traditional behavior can easily revert the change. Edit /etc/sudoers using sudo visudo and add this line:
# Disable password feedback (revert to silent)
Defaults !pwfeedbackThis applies system-wide. Additionally, you can disable it per-user by adding Defaults:username !pwfeedback. Configuration management tools like Ansible, Puppet, or Chef can enforce this policy across fleets.
The deadline for deciding is April 23, 2026. After Ubuntu 26.04 LTS releases, millions of users will see asterisks by default. Plan accordingly.
Why Ubuntu Broke Tradition
This isn’t just a UX tweak. Furthermore, it’s part of Ubuntu’s larger shift to sudo-rs, a memory-safe Rust rewrite of sudo. Ubuntu 25.10 (October 2025) was the first major distribution to adopt sudo-rs, prioritizing memory safety over C’s vulnerability to buffer overflows and use-after-free bugs.
Rust’s strict approach to memory usage eliminates entire classes of vulnerabilities that have plagued system tools for decades. In fact, sudo-rs has been audited twice (August 2023 and August 2025) and takes a “less is more” approach by intentionally not implementing obscure sudo features that increase attack surface. You can review the official Ubuntu Discourse announcement for technical details.
The password feedback change is a side effect of that modernization. sudo-rs developers believe the 1980 security model is obsolete and that aligning with modern password UX (every other app shows dots or asterisks) outweighs minimal security loss. They’re right.
Key Takeaways
- Ubuntu 26.04 (April 23, 2026) shows asterisks when typing sudo passwords, ending a 46-year Unix tradition of silent password entry
- The original threat model (shoulder-surfing in shared terminals) is obsolete in 2026—password reuse is a far bigger risk than asterisk visibility
- sudo-rs prioritizes memory safety and modern UX over cargo-cult security practices from 1980
- Organizations can disable pwfeedback via sudoers, but the default is changing for good reason
- Every other password interface shows visual feedback—terminals were the last holdout, and that holdout was security theater
