Inspecting code elements in browser when logging in

Question

When I use the built-in Chrome inspect element, click on the networking tab and view a login.action file or session file, it shows the password in plain text. Is this normal?

Answer 1

Yes, this is normal.

The networking tab in the Chrome developer tools show network operations for the website you are on, but all this traffic would be encrypted over the wire if the site uses SSL/TLS.

For example, here's a login captured on a website with SSL/TLS:

General
    Request URL: https://www.w3schools.com/action_page.php
    Request Method: POST
    Status Code: 200 

Form Data
    uname: someUsername
    psw: somePassword
    remember: on

And if Wireshark is used to capture the post request, all you can see is some encrypted data.