Miscellaneous Hacks - Enhanced Captcha Image Verification - stop bots from signing up!!

Title : Enhanced Captcha Image Verification

Version : 1.1

Coder : Andy Calderbank & Jason Williams

Purpose : Add extra Image Verification to the registration process, using an alternative system to the Captcha system.

Why : It would appear that spammers can now "read" the Captcha codes and overcome the verification process.

How : This extra feature uses images which are harder for a spam program/bot to interpret than text characters. The user has a choice of 4 randomly displayed images, and the answer is given below. The user must click on that image to proceed, if the incorrect image is selected an error message is shown. The images are randomly shown (from however many are in the directory - you can have as many as you want, just has to be more that 4!) and are automatically created from the images/verification/ directory - all on the fly. Sample images are included with this release, but you can use your own - I recommend using 100 x 100 pixels, in .jpg format and naming the image with a meaningful title (ie A House.jpg) - the extension is stripped so only the filename itself is shown.

To further enhance security, the images are passed through a script which means that none of the images on the screen have file names - and cannot be associated to the question by title alone.

I have been testing this on my forum and have found it to be effective - I cannot guarantee that this will stop all spamming, but this relies more on human input than a computer "reading" the image.

Important : This has been tested on 3.6.2 - I cannot guarantee it will work on anything above, please test with caution - and as always BACKUP FIRST! This will not work on anything below 3.6.0.

Demo : http://www.steadiforum.com/register.php

I hope this is help to the VBulletin community as I know this is a growing problem. I don't fancy the thought of trawling through hundreds of new members deleting stupid usernames and spam posts.

Installation :

1. Upload the verification/ directory to your images/ folder - make sure .htaccess and show.php are present - otherwise it won't work.
2. Import Product - product-image_verification.xml

Upgrading :

1. Upload show.php to the images/verification/ directory.
2. Import Product - product-image_verification.xml - select Allow Overwrite to enable upgrade.

Requirements : GD Libraries installed

File uploads : 39 (including images)
Files to Import : 1
New Templates : 1
New Phrases : 5
Uses Hooks : 1
New Queries : 0

History :
v1.0 - Original release
v1.01 - Slight code change for forums in sub-directories (thanks go to Barakat for solving this one)
v1.1 - Issue resolved with Windows servers also template clean up for xhtml compliance
v1.11 - Added version check function, minor upgrade.

Done - if you like please click install! (and I won't ask for any donations as long as you click Nominate for MOTM!)

Don't forget you don't have to use the provided images - you can customise these to any you wish - I've used ones that are hopefully universal and everyone will recognise.

[SteveMoody]

I've just installed this on my website now. Only a low traffic site but i seem to have been getting 4-5 bots signing up for every 1 member over the last couple of weeks

[seg]

Nice mod ... not sure if anyone brought this up, but if the SPAM bot visits register.php?clicked=2 then they pass by the image test. Wouldn't it be better to replace the Image Verification on the main registration page with this verification, similar to how KittenAuth works? Just wanted to point out a weakness.

[seg]

Actually I tested that url again after restarting my browser and this time I was blocked. Thanks!

Originally Posted by seg

Nice mod ... not sure if anyone brought this up, but if the SPAM bot visits register.php?clicked=2 then they pass by the image test. Wouldn't it be better to replace the Image Verification on the main registration page with this verification, similar to how KittenAuth works? Just wanted to point out a weakness.

[Nathan2006]

Thanks Jason

This is great!

Install

[Keyser S?ze]

are there any plans to update this so it supports imagemagic?

great mod

[steadicamop]

Originally Posted by Keyser S?ze

are there any plans to update this so it supports imagemagic?

great mod

I'm not too clued up on ImageMagic - will see what I can come up with.

Jason

[oberheimhaven]

Warning: dir(images/verification/) [function.dir]: failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /register.php(202) : eval()'d code on line 6

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/.hiam/niceman/musiciansquarters.com/forums/register.php(202) : eval()'d code on line 7

ANY SUGGESTIONS

[gersforum@gmail]

Works a treat - well done!

[steadicamop]

Originally Posted by oberheimhaven

Warning: dir(images/verification/) [function.dir]: failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /register.php(202) : eval()'d code on line 6

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/.hiam/niceman/musiciansquarters.com/forums/register.php(202) : eval()'d code on line 7


ANY SUGGESTIONS

This should solve it - your forums directory is in a subdirectory from the domain (which mine isn't) - if you go to the AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Plugin Manager -> Extra user verification and click Edit.

In there you will see this code:

$d = dir('images/verification/');

This is from the forum root - so you will need to add your /forums directory, so it should look like this:

$d = dir('forums/images/verification/');

That should hopefully solve the issue - this is a general rule - if your forum is in a subdirectory, this would need to be changed.

Let me know if this works.

Jason

[oberheimhaven]

NOPE
Warning: dir(forums/images/verification/) [function.dir]: failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /register.php(202) : eval()'d code on line 6

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/.hiam/niceman/musiciansquarters.com/forums/register.php(202) : eval()'d code on line 7