It seems that no matter how hard you try, if you work in the software industry long enough, someone will eventually give you a patent for something you do. Bother.

Method and apparatus for implementing a pluggable password obscuring mechanism

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that implements a pluggable password obscuring mechanism. During operation, the system receives a request to obscure a password to produce an obscured version of the password. If the request specifies a customized technique for obscuring the password, the system loads a dynamic library that performs the customized technique, and then uses the dynamic library to obscure the password. If the request does not specify a customized technique, the system uses a default technique to obscure the password. In this way, the customized technique for obscuring the password can be used without having to modify source code.

Patent number: 7249260
Filing date: Jun 12, 2003
Issue date: Jul 24, 2007
Inventors: Darren J. Moffat, Casper H. Dik, Alec Muffett
Assignee: SUN Microsystems, Inc.