[UPHPU] Breaking Captchas

[Caleb Call]

Well his host (I'm 99% sure I know who it is) used to have several scripts
that you could do this with.  I moved away from them a while ago, but I
doubt they would really care about him doing this.  I know captcha is used
for a reason, but I bet they wouldn't think twice about it.

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Lonnie Olson <lists at kittypee.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 5:36 PM, Joseph Scott <joseph at josephscott.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > On Mar 7, 2009, at 12:45 AM, Kirk Ouimet wrote:
> >
> >> My web host allows me to control how much RAM is available on my hosted
> >> Linux VServer and charges me $1 for every 10 MB allocated. I wrote a
> >> script
> >> this week that uses information from the Linux command "top" to scale
> >> resources available based on current demand. Running the script ends up
> >> saving me about $40/month. Everything was going great until they put a
> >> Captcha on the page that my script uses to set my allocated resources.
> >
> > What I'm going to suggest is that you talk to your host about providing
> an
> > API for customers to make these types of changes.  In the long run I
> that's
> > a much better approach than trying to keep with changes to the HTML
> forms.
>
> Um, have you thought this through?  The purpose of a CAPTCHA is to
> block automated robots.  You run an "automated robot".  Your host is
> purposely trying to block what you are doing.  In fact it might have
> been your usage of this "robot" that triggered them to implement the
> CAPTCHA.
>
> If you goal is to piss off your Web Hosting provider, continue with
> your CAPTCHA breaking.
> If you goal is to save money, contact your Web Hosting provider and
> talk to them, perhaps they will provide an API, or perhaps you need to
> find a new host.  Pissing off your host is a "very bad thing".
>
>
> Now I agree that you want to save money, and this idea can save you a
> ton.  However your web host is probably using this method to gouge
> it's customers.  Consider a mobile phone plan, do you really think
> Verizon would be happy if users kept changing their plans every few
> days to barely cover their usage.  Of course not, they make lots of
> money on overages, and overpaying.  My guess is that your host is
> doing the same thing.
>
>
> IMHO, any time you need to consider breaking a CAPTCHA, you are doing
> something nefarious, and possibly illegal.  Just say NO to CAPTCHA
> breaking.
>
> --lonnie
>
>
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