sending password to command line tools

Question

i'm writing a python application that uses a command line utility (propietary so it can't be modified) to do part of its work. The problem is that I have to pass the password as a command line argument to the tool which would easily be seen by any user doing 'ps ax'. How can I send the password to the command line tool safely from within python (or a shell script)?

Answer 1

If the application has some interactive mode, you can use something like pyexpect.

If it only accepts passwords on command line the application was DESIGNED to be vulnerable to 'ps ax', how are you expected to overcome original bad design? It is propietary, complaints should go to the guilty^H^H^H^H^H^Hauthor.