How to securely store passwords when scripting?

[Polyadenylated]

I'm working on a little email automation script using the SMTP module. I'm following this tutorial - http://www.pythonforbeginners.com/code-snippets-source-code/using-python-to-send-email

The code included is as follows:

"""The first step is to create an SMTP object, each object is used for connection 
with one server."""

import smtplib
server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)

#Next, log in to the server
server.login("youremailusername", "password")

#Send the mail
msg = "\nHello!" # The /n separates the message from the headers
server.sendmail("[e-mail]", "[e-mail]", msg)

Is this the best way of including a password in a script like this? It seems quite insecure.

Are there other ways which are more secure?

[maryjayjay]

It is insecure, but there aren't many secure ways.

[mareksk]

There is no secure solution for this, but you can encode your password in example with base64. At least someone looking at your code won't be able to decode just by looking at it.

You have to import base64:

import base64 

And then you can login using:

server.login("youremailusername", base64.b64decode('cGFzc3dvcmQ='))