HTML Encoded Captchas

rangeva writes to tell us about a twist he has developed on the common Captcha technique to discourage spam bots: HECs encode the Captcha image into HTML, thus presenting an unsolved challenge to the bots' programmers. From the writeup: "The Captcha is no longer an image and therefore not a resource they can download and process. The owner of the site can change the properties of the Captcha's HTML, making it unique,... add[ing] another layer of complication for the bot to crack." HECs are not exactly lightweight — the one on the linked page weighs in at 218K — but this GPL'd project seems like a nice advance on the state of the art.

Re:workaround...

[rjamestaylor]

Brilliantly devious. Hundreds of pr0n-seeking addicts are itching at any given moment to get their fix. Only problem is that there probably aren't enough CAPTCHAs available on the web to meet the pr0n-seekers demand! Either free "inventory" will be given away for repeated CAPTCHA solving or, if repeats not used, CAPTCHA won't be available and will frustrate the frustrated seeker even more. So, PhpBB-admins do your part: enable CAPTCHAs to meet the demand!

Re:workaround...

[Phillup]

When it comes to porn, I'm no slouch and I can count the number of times I've seen sites that give you free access after entering a captcha on one hand.

One hand eh?

Guess we don't really need to ask how you know this...

Re:Render, PrintScr, OCR?

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

human intelligence requiring task

"Prove or disprove P=NP. (You have 500 characters remaining.)"