While the term "spy" carries a nefarious connotation, these tools are frequently used by IT professionals for legitimate purposes.

A malicious tool, such as the infamous utility (a real executable found in many security testing suites like NirSoft ’s utilities), performs the following steps:

This is the most common scenario. You walk away from your desk to get coffee, forgetting to lock your screen. A malicious insider runs a portable USB stick containing an asterisk revealer. In seconds, they expose the passwords for your CRM, email, or banking portal.

But what if those asterisks could be turned back into plain text with a single click?