How does AppleScript store user input?

Question

So another question,
if I were to put the following into an AppleScript:
set password to text returned of (display dialog "Enter your password" default answer "" with hidden answer)
does AppleScript store this as clear text? If so, how long does it retain this?
Thanks!

Answer 1

does AppleScript store this as clear text? If so, how long does it retain this?
It doesn't store it at all - well, other than in memory as the variable password
Since it's in memory, if someone were able to dump the contents of your system's memory they could, conceivably, see the value, but it wouldn't be obvious.
Like all AppleScript variables, it's value is lost as soon as it goes out of scope - typically when the script ends, unless you're in a handler, in which case it is discarded as soon as the current handler returns, even if the main script continues to run. For example:
on run
  my doSomething() -- call the doSomething() handler
  display dialog myPassword -- error - myPassword is not defined
end run
on doSomething()
  set myPassword to text returned of (display dialog "Enter your password" default answer "" with hidden answer)
  display dialog myPassword -- works because you're inside the handler where myPassword is defined
end doSomething
In this case the run handler calls doSomething() which asks for the password and displays it in a dialog. When the handler returns, though, the variable is lost and can no longer be used.