Paste without Paste? Fake Keyboard Input.

Hi @sschluntz, welcome to the Community!

To point you in the right direction, could you let us know a bit more about your setup, for example which operating system you're using? 

There may already be something that would work for your needs. For example, dragging and dropping credentials from the 1Password desktop apps into another window acts as a type action rather than a paste, and 1Password for Windows has an Auto-Type feature.

Looking forward to hearing from you! 

Hello, thanks for the welcome.

I run into the issue on Windows and macOS on some things and macOS on others, and it relates to IP based KVM style solutions. For example, the HP iLo server management tool, which provides a virtual terminal to access the keyboard/mouse/monitor of the server. The HTML5 terminal does not accept pasted input (ctrl-p, ctrl-shift-p, command-p, etc) and does not provide a right click menu. I just tried to drag the password and while it showed the + while hovering over the window, it didn’t actually get the text into the window when I released the mouse button. The only input that works for the window is physical keyboard input. I have the same issue on macOS with virtual terminals using vSphere on VMWare ESXi through Citrix, but I was told by a co-worker that paste could be made to work for Windows devices, I’ve not tried that yet.

I’ve tried to find alternatives. For example, I’ve considered building one of the keystroke injector USB sticks, but that would leave me with a single use device that “typed” a password into anything I plugged it into - not a good security posture.

I realize that this is likely a tiny use case for your community, but also wonder if there were other areas where it could be of use.

Hi ​@sschluntz, thanks for your reply!

To clarify, Autotype is a very different thing to autofill. Auto-type doesn't have the ability to detect or recognise the app you're using. Instead you trigger it manually from the Quick Access (Ctrl + Shift + Space) menu. It then types your credentials directly into whichever app window and field is currently active on your screen. As such, it is possible to have credentials typed into the wrong location, so it’s important to take care to only use it when the correct app is focused.

To try it on Windows:

1. Enable “Show auto-type action in Quick Access” in the 1Password for Windows desktop app under Settings > General.
2. Click into the field you want to fill in another app.
3. Press Ctrl + Shift + Space to open Quick Access
4. Find the login you want to fill, and click or press Enter on it - 1Password will type your credentials into the currently focused window.

Because it enters your credentials as keyboard input rather than using your clipboard, it's worth giving it a go in your setup. However, it may not work for every app or situation, so let us know how you get on.

Thank you for the clarification, I see where I was confused.

Interestingly enough, between when it was first mentioned and now (macOS v8.12.28) the Auto-type section is no longer listed in the General Settings page. I don’t see that it has been moved elsewhere. I did verify it was enabled when the link to the document was originally referenced, but it’s not showing up as an option when I use the shortcut (command-shift-space on mac).

When I try the quick fill (which I think is great BTW, I’m going to use it a lot) I do not get the “Auto-Type” option (See attached).

Hi ​@sschluntz, I’m glad to hear that the information was helpful! Is there any chance that when you first checked the feature was enabled, you were checking on Windows rather than Mac? Auto-type is a feature specific to 1Password for Windows, so it’s expected that the option won’t be present on Mac.

That is good to know, I use both macOS and Windows.  I will try this test again tomorrow on my primary Windows computer. 

Hi ​@sschluntz, thanks for letting me know! I’ll look forward to hearing back about how this goes.

It made a good effort on my Windows 11 PC running 1Password 8.12.28. I ctrl-shift-space brought up the quick window and I was able to select auto-type for the appropriate password entry. Unfortunately it ended up only typing “8=”. I tried it three times to make sure it wasn’t a fluke (sometimes the vSphere remote screen adds garbage the first time you attempt to log in). 

Hi ​@sschluntz, thanks for giving this a go! It sounds like this may be one of those situations that Auto-type doesn’t currently work for.

Regarding your second attempt, Auto-type types the username into the currently focused field, presses Tab, types the password, then presses Enter (if you have it set to submit), and copies the one-time password to the clipboard if one is present. This sequence can’t be changed.

We have recently had some feedback from customers that it would be helpful to be able to customise the Auto-type typing sequence for specific logins, for example by setting it to press Enter instead of Tab between username and password. If this is something you’d find useful too, let me know, and I’ll be happy to file your feedback with our team as well.