pinentry-tty

About pinentry-tty

From Debian's package description

This package contains a program that allows for secure entry of PINs or pass phrases. That means it tries to take care that the entered information is not swapped to disk or temporarily stored anywhere. This functionality is particularly useful for entering pass phrases when using encryption software such as GnuPG or e-mail clients using the same. It uses an open protocol and is therefore not tied to particular software.

The program contained in this package implements a PIN entry prompt that interacts directly with the controlling terminal. It has minimal dependencies, meaning that it is useful for users working with dumb terminals or similarly constrained environments. There are sibling packages that implement PIN entry dialogs that use curses for friendlier text-mode inputs on non-dumb terminals, and other sibling packages that provide PIN entry dialogs using an X tool kit.

From Debian's description of the pinentry-tty package, under that package's license.