Miscellaneous Hacks - Enhanced Image Captcha - Stop bots from signing up!

Title : Enhanced Image Captcha

Version : 2.2b

VB Versions : Currently working and tested on 3.8.4 (as of Dec 2014)

Coder : Andy Calderbank & Jason Williams

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

The Enhanced Image Captcha system is a unique system using images versus text to stop spammers signing up to your forum. The script automatically detects images and uses the filename as the title, making adding new images extremely simple. To further improve 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 - and cannot be viewed by trying to access the images directly.

Please note, there is a .htaccess file within the images directory, to keep security tight, this must be kept, without it bots are able to scan the images and make a match, I understand not every server can utilist .htaccess but cannot get around this.

Important : This has been tested on 3.7 and 3.6.2 - as far as I know this should be backwards and forwards compatible.

My thanks go to all the guys who have helped with this, all the suggestions and feedback, all has been take on board and where necessary included in this new version - members in particular are : King Kovifor, Danny.VBT, Lynne and RCK.

Also thanks to ogameclub for the Turkish translated version.

I must thank Opserty too for their hard work in making me understand where I was going wrong!!

New features from original 1.11 release!!

Admin settable options:

• Number of images to display
• Path to image directory (so you can change if you prefer)
• Resize image between 50% - 150% of original image
• Number of images to display before a line break (see History)
• Enable/Disable

Demo : http://www.steadiforum.net/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 show.php to your forum root directory (or wherever register.php is).
2. Upload the images/verification directory, this can be moved to the forum root or have the verification name changed, but needs updating in the Enhanced Image Captcha AdminCP options.
3. Import Product - product-enhanced_image_captcha.xml
4. Make sure that you check that the Images Path is correct in AdminCP -> VBulletin Options -> Enhanced Image Captcha.
5. You can also select how many images and what size from the original you would prefer.

Upgrading:

1. Import Product - product-enhanced_image_captcha.xml - overwrite if necessary.
2. Set any options you need in AdminCP -> VBulletin Options -> Enhanced Image Captcha.

Upgrading from v1.xx :

1. Remove the images/verification directory and all images inside.
2. Uninstall the product - Enhanced Captcha Image Verification - important for phrase and template removal!
3. Upload show.php to your forum root directory (or wherever register.php is).
4. Upload the images/verification directory, this can be moved to the forum root or have the verification name changed, but needs updating in the Enhanced Image Captcha AdminCP options.
5. Import Product - product-enhanced_image_captcha.xml - overwrite if necessary.
6. Make sure that you check that the Images Path is correct in AdminCP -> VBulletin Options -> Enhanced Image Captcha.
7. You can also select how many images and what size from the original you would prefer.

Requirements : GD Libraries installed

File uploads : 53 (including images)
Files to Import : 1
New Templates : 2
New Phrases : 15
Uses Hooks : 1
New Queries : 0

History :
v2.0b

• Original Beta release

v2.1b

• Added Enable/Disable Option
• Also added Turkish Translated version
• Added new image page

v2.2b

• Bug Fix : Opera browsers, any number over around 8 images disappears over side of screen, added number of images before line break function to stop this happening

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.

[Yago]

Get this error message when I try to register. Please help

Warning: dir(images/verification) [function.dir]: failed to open dir: No such file or directory in /register.php(203) : eval()'d code on line 9

Fatal error: Call to a member function read() on a non-object in /home/petmessa/www/www/forums/register.php(203) : eval()'d code on line 10

[djrapid.com]

Great, installed thanks

[intricatic]

Originally Posted by acorndomains.co

Does it work if you have VBSEO installed?

I think it probably does, but you'd have to play with the vbseo settings to get things sorted out. I just don't have the time to figure out what the problem is or how to fix it. I'm betting it's something simple, though.

[cmd19872002]

Humm there is a huge flaw that has been in this since v1.

Ok, basicly the bot goes to the page, detects its this style of auth and instead of trying to guess the correct image, it just does them all. What i mean is... it loads this page /register.php?clicked=1 increasing the clicked number each time using the same cookies. Once it guesses the correct number, it can continue to register.

~Cmd

[TitanJeff]

This worked great for me until I upgraded to 3.7.3. Anyone else experience a problem when they upgraded? Thanks.

[baghdad4ever]

hi every one

how can i enlarge the name of picture

Please click the image above that is=name of picture

thanks

[ShackMaster]

I upgraded MySQL and PHP today and now only get red x's. Had to disable it. Oh well. Too bad it is no longer supported.

[columbusgeek]

red X's? You prolly have a bad image path or your new php compile is missing libraries such as GD or possibly truetype font.

Basic server admin stuff.

[steadicamop]

Guys,

I've been out of the loop for several months, had lots of personal issues to address but now I have more free time I can get back to the job at hand and try to resolve any issues that people may have had installing and running this. When I get chance in a few hours I will go back through this thread and find any unanswered questions and do my best to get everyone up and running if they had issues. I also have a few unanswered PM's so I apologise for the delay in getting back to these, I will answer all of these tonight.

Stay tuned, I plan to upgrade this to the latest version of VBulletin in the next few weeks.

Thanks for your support guys,

Jason

[neutroncore]

thanks for your efforts!