Ubuntu 26.04 ends a 40-year old sudo tradition.
What’s this about? When you run a command in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS using sudo and enter your password, you now see asterisks (*) appear as you type. Previously you’d see nothing but a gaping black void reflecting your own uncertainty back at you.
Ubuntu uses a new sudo, right? Yes. Ubuntu switched to sudo-rs, a rewrite of the decades-old C version in Rust, back in 25.10. You still run sudo as the command, which made that switch invisible to most. The asterisks are new in 26.04 specifically. Canonical cherry-picked a patch from upstream sudo-rs to use the password feedback by default. It won’t affect legacy sudo (sudo-ws).
I always thought sudo should show those asterisks… You and a lot of other people. Linux Mint decided to enable visual feedback for sudo by default. No indication of typing often confuses newcomers who think they’re doing something wrong.
Read More Here: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/02/ubuntu-26-04-sudo-password-asterisks
