I have an application which is invoked by user entering a password. It processes some data and occasionally needs to re-use the password.

What is the recommend way to save the password yet avoid user access via name mangling?

1 – Naive approach

class C:
    def __init__(self, password: str,) -> None:
        self.__pw = password
   
c=C("hide-me-well")
print(c._C__pw)

2 – Fernet approach

from cryptography.fernet import Fernet

class C:
    def __init__(self, password: str,) -> None:
        self.__key = Fernet.generate_key()
        self.__cipher = Fernet(self.__key)
        self.__encrypted_pw = self.__cipher.encrypt(password.encode('utf-8'))

c=C("hide-me-well")
print(c._C__cipher.decrypt(c._C__encrypted_pw).decode('utf-8'))