A "plaintext password" refers to a password that is not hidden or encrypted. It's a password that is easily readable and understandable by anyone who might see it. Full definition
An analysis of a massive 8.8 GB trove of files containing usernames and plaintext passwords suggests hundreds of services may have experienced unreported or undiscovered data breaches. (govinfosecurity.com)
Ex-NSA analyst Patrick Wardle has discovered that malicious third - party apps could let hackers access plaintext passwords stored in Apple's Keychain with the macOS High Sierra update. (ibtimes.com)
So Hunt looked at some of the bcrypt hashes from the original Dropbox data and then looked at the corresponding plaintext password from the data trove. (cuinfosecurity.com)