Finally you can easily accept password from console in Java, without echoing them.

This long unmet need has been addressed in JDK 1.6 codeline.

A new class - java.io.Console has been defined to handle console I/O.

To accept password from console in JDK 6.0 (aka JDK 1.6) use either:
public char[] readPassword()
or
public char[] readPassword(String fmt, Object… args)

Sample code:
  Console cons;
  char[] passwd;
  if ((cons = System.console()) != null &&
       (passwd = cons.readPassword("[%s]", "Password:")) != null) {
       // Use the passwd for authentication etc.
       ….; // Your code
       // After you are done zero the character array in memory for reducing security risk
      java.util.Arrays.fill(passwd, ' ');
 }

So could I entice you yet to download JDK 1.6?