Which passwords are sent over the wire (and wireless) network, or stored on some media as it is typed without any alteration?

• A. Hashed passwords
• B. Obfuscated passwords
• C. Hex passwords
• D. Clear text passwords

Answer: (D)

Passwords that are sent over the network or stored on media should never appear exactly as the user typed them. When a password is in clear text, it travels or sits in the same readable form, so anyone who intercepts the traffic or gains access to the storage can read the exact password. This is why secure systems avoid clear text by using protections that transform or protect the password: encryption for transit and hashing for storage. Hashing converts the password into a fixed digest that isn’t easily reversible, obfuscation is a weak and easily reversible trick, and hex encoding merely changes the representation without providing real security. The only scenario that matches “as it is typed without any alteration” is clear text passwords.