CAPTCHAs
(Completely Automated
Public Turing test to tell
Computers and Humans
Apart)
SUBMITTED BY :
Niharjyoti Sarangi
Regd . No . 0601101232
Information Technology
 TOPICS PRESENTED
INTRODUCTION
ORIGIN OF CAPTCHAS
APPLICATIONS OF CAPTCHAS
EXAMPLES OF CAPTCHAS
CHARACTERISTICS OF CAPTCHAS
CRITICISMS
CONCLUSION
 INTRODUCTION
 A CAPTCHA is a program that can generate and grade
tests that:

Most humans can pass ,but
Current computer programs can’t pass.


 Such a program can be used to differentiate humans

from computers.
CAPTCHA tests are dynamically generated by
computers , in contrast to the standard Turing test
which is administered by a human.

This characteristic allows them to be widely used for
practical security reasons.
 ORIGIN OF CAPTCHAS

First developed by Alta Vista in

1997.
The term coined in 2000 by Luis
von Ahn , Manuel Blum and
Nicholas J. Hopper of Carnegie
Mellon University and John
Langford of IBM.

 APPLICATIONS

ONLINE POLLS
FREE EMAIL SERVICES
SEARCH ENGINE BOTS
SHOPPING AGENTS
 EXAMPLES OF CAPTCHAs

 1.Based on difficulty of
reading distorted text
e.g.1:Gimpy
 Selects 7-10 words out of a
dictionary and renders a distorted
image of the words. The test can be
passed by recognizing any 3 of the
words.

 Based on difficulty of reading
distorted text (contd..)
e.g.2:EZ-Gimpy

 Simplified version of Gimpy

where the test can be passed by
recognizing the distorted image of a
single word

2. Based on pattern recognition
e.g. Bongo

 Two series of blocks with different

patterns are presented. The test is
passed by recognizing which one of the
two series a given block belongs to.


3. Based on sound recognition

The program picks a word or a
sequence of numbers at random,
renders the word or the numbers into
sound clip and distorts the sound clip.
It then presents the distorted sound
clip to its user and asks them to enter
the contents of the sound clip.
 CHALLENGES IN CAPTCHAS

 Reading-based CAPTCHAS challenges

typically comprises:

Segmentation challenges

Recognition challenges

 CHARACTERISTICS OF
CAPTCHAS
Fully automated requiring little
human maintenance or intervention
in administering the test.
Algorithms used to create CAPTCHAs
are made public. Discovery of the
algorithm cannot be used to break it.

 P stands for PUBLIC.WHY?
Hackers : Once a hacker breaks into the system
and finds this secret data , the captcha ceases to be
secure forever.
Reverse Engineering and Analysis: If the code
weren’t public, The Adversary could still earn how
a captcha works by simply taking many of the tests
generated by it.
We’re doing AI:. If a captcha is broken, then a
previously unsolved AI problem is solved.
 CRITICISMS
Visually impaired people may not be able to pass the
test even though they are eligible users.
Accessibility is greatly reduced as the CAPTCHAs
become more complex. Some CAPTCHAs lose their
readability.
In the case of using logic puzzles, users with
cognitive disabilities may have trouble.
In heuristic methods, if pattern-matching algorithms
can't find good heuristics, then this is not a good
solution.


 LAUNDRY ATTACKS

A laundry attack takes advantage of unsuspected
users who will eventually solve a CAPTCHA in
favor of the attacker, while they think that the
CAPTCHA is solved for their own service.

The laundering of a CAPTCHA can be implemented
by using the bots as intermediates.
 SOLUTION TO LAUNDRY ATTACKS

Current forms of CAPTCHAs are subject to laundry

attacks because of their static nature. They are
pictures that contain the puzzle and the user has to
complete the answer to a text field outside the
puzzle .That is the solution of the CAPTCHA is
static and can be transferred between nodes.
What we need to take is to transform a CAPTCHA
test from a static picture to a dynamic application.
That is, the answer must be completed inside the
puzzle.
 CONCLUSION
CAPTCHAs prove a good security measure if they are
strong enough and more accessible. There is still
room for improvement in the non-visual type of
CAPTCHAs. A CAPTCHA implies a win-win
situation: either the CAPTCHA is not broken and
there is a way to differentiate humans from
computers, or the CAPTCHA is broken and a useful
AI problem is solved.
 REFERENCES
www.wikipedia.org
Telling Humans and Computers Apart by Luis von
Ahn, Manuel Blum.
Enhanced CAPTCHAS by Elias Athanasopoulos and
Spiros Antonatos.
CAPTCHA: Using Hard AI Problems For Security by
Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum.
THANK YOU
QUERIES?