mukimov

A tiny cross-platform Python library for masked password input in the terminal.

Developed by Mukimov Studio

What is mukimov?

mukimov lets you read a password or any other secret text in the terminal while showing a mask character instead of the real keystrokes.

For example, the user really types:

123456

but the terminal shows:

Password: ******

And the function returns the real text "123456".

Important: this is NOT hashing and NOT encryption. The library only visually hides input from people who may be looking at the screen. The real password is still returned to your program as a plain string.

Installation

pip install mukimov

Upgrade to the latest version:

pip install --upgrade mukimov

Check the installed version:

pip show mukimov

Quick Start

The simplest possible example:

from mukimov import stars

password = stars("Password: ")

What the user sees:

Password: ******

If the user typed 123456, the variable password contains:

"123456"

Custom Mask ✨

The second argument controls which character is shown for every typed symbol:

stars("Password: ", "*")  # Password: ******
stars("Password: ", "/")  # Password: //////
stars("Password: ", "#")  # Password: ######
stars("Password: ", "•")  # Password: ••••••

API:

stars(prompt, mask="*")

Parameter	Type	Description
prompt	str	Text displayed before input.
mask	str	Character shown instead of each typed symbol. Defaults to "*".

Important: mask must contain exactly ONE character.

Full Example

A realistic login prompt:

from mukimov import stars

username = input("Username: ")
password = stars("Password: ")

print(f"Welcome, {username}!")

Example terminal session:

Username: Mukimov
Password: ********
Welcome, Mukimov!

Note that the real password is never printed — only the mask is shown.

Errors

mukimov raises clear, descriptive errors in Russian. Each message tells you which parameter is wrong, what value was passed, why it is wrong, what was expected, and shows a correct example.

Wrong usage:

stars("Password: ", "//")

Error:

ValueError: Параметр mask='//' содержит 2 символа. Допускается только 1 символ.
Пример: stars("Password: ", "*")

More examples (real messages from the library):

stars("Password: ", "")

ValueError: Параметр mask='' пустой. Укажите ровно 1 символ для маскировки.
Пример: stars("Password: ", "*")

stars("Password: ", 123)

TypeError: Параметр mask должен быть строкой (str), но получен int: 123.
Пример: stars("Password: ", "*")

stars(123)

TypeError: Параметр prompt должен быть строкой (str), но получен int: 123.
Пример: stars("Password: ")

Platform Support

Only systems actually supported by the current code are listed:

OS	Backend
Windows	msvcrt
Linux	termios / tty
macOS	termios / tty

The library uses only the Python standard library — no third-party dependencies. When standard input is not a TTY (pipes, IDE consoles, CI), it safely falls back to getpass with no echo.

Extra behavior worth knowing:

• Backspace deletes the last mask character and the last symbol.
• Enter finishes input.
• Ctrl+C raises KeyboardInterrupt, Ctrl+D on empty input raises EOFError.

Why mukimov?

The goal of mukimov is a simple, short API for masked terminal input.

mukimov:

from mukimov import stars

password = stars("Password: ", "•")

And the standard-library alternative, where your Python version supports echo_char:

from getpass import getpass

password = getpass("Password: ", echo_char="•")

If you like the classic getpass, keep using it — mukimov is just a compact option when you want per-character masking with a tiny API.

Security 🔒

mukimov hides the password only visually, while it is being typed.

It does NOT:

• hash the password
• encrypt the password
• store the password securely by itself
• protect the process from malware
• protect the contents of the process memory

After input, the function returns the real password as a regular Python string. To store passwords, developers must separately use a reliable password-hashing solution.

Also, error messages and logs of this library never include the typed password — only configuration values (prompt, mask) may appear in validation errors.

API

stars(prompt="Password: ", mask="*")

Parameters:

• prompt: str — text displayed before input.
• mask: str — exactly one character shown instead of each typed symbol.

Returns:

• str — the real text the user typed.

Exceptions:

• TypeError — prompt or mask is not a string.
• ValueError — mask is empty or longer than one character.

Project

• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/mukimov/
• GitHub: https://github.com/mukimov/mukimov
• Author: mukimov
• Organization: Mukimov Studio
• Email: mukimov.shop@gmail.com
• License: MIT