How To Accept Password From Console in Java

Finally you can easily accept password from console in Java, without echoing them.

This long unmet need has been addressed in JDK 1.6 codeline.

A new class - java.io.Console has been defined to handle console I/O.

To accept password from console in JDK 6.0 (aka JDK 1.6) use either:
public char[] readPassword()
or
public char[] readPassword(String fmt, Object… args)

Sample code:
  Console cons;
  char[] passwd;
  if ((cons = System.console()) != null &&
       (passwd = cons.readPassword("[%s]", "Password:")) != null) {
       // Use the passwd for authentication etc.
       ....; // Your code
       // After you are done zero the character array in memory for reducing security risk
      java.util.Arrays.fill(passwd, ' ');
 }

So could I entice you yet to download JDK 1.6?