Skip to main content

How to create a private paste link with a password

Add a password to a paste so only people who know it can open the link. A guide to creating private, password-protected paste links.

A private paste link restricts access so only people who know the password can open it. This is useful for sharing sensitive information with a specific person without exposing it to anyone who stumbles across the link.

  1. Open a new paste

    Go to nullpaste.org — no account or sign-up required.

  2. Enter your content

    Type or paste the text or code you want to share privately.

  3. Set a password

    Scroll to the Password field and enter a password. NullPaste hashes it with Argon2 on the server — the plain-text password is never stored.

  4. Create and share

    Click Create paste and copy the link. Share the link and the password separately — for example, send the link in email and the password in a chat message.

  5. Recipients enter the password to open it

    Anyone who opens the link is prompted for the password. Without it, the content is not shown.

Tips for private sharing

  • Send the link and password through different channels — if one channel is compromised, the paste is still protected.
  • Set an expiry so the paste disappears automatically after the recipient has read it.
  • For maximum privacy, combine a password with end-to-end encryption — the server then cannot read the content even if it receives a request.
  • Use burn-after-read to ensure only one person can ever open the paste, even if the link leaks afterward.

Password vs encryption

Password protection controls access — only people with the password can open the paste, but the content is stored on the server in a form the server can read. End-to-end encryption goes further: the server stores only ciphertext and cannot decrypt it under any circumstances. For highly sensitive secrets, use encryption; for general-purpose private sharing, a password is usually sufficient.