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How Hackers Listened Their Way Around Google's Recaptcha
An anonymous reader writes with this story at Ars Technica: "Three self-taught hackers from the DC949 hacker collective managed to use a combination of techniques to beat ReCaptcha with 99.1% accuracy (better than most humans!)" In short, the hackers skipped the visual part of the Recaptcha system entirely, focusing on the audio alternative, which gave them a few convenient angles of attack. Google responded with changes to the system, but that doesn't minimize their accomplishment.
Oh yeah! Not even a recaptcha to worry about!
That's it! Make all users do a SERIES of incredibly hard recaptchas. Those who get too many correct are machines! Brilliant!
If they can solve captchas at 99% accuracy, I hope they develop a browser toolbar or plugin I can use.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Now *that's* impressive. The closest approximation I've heard to the audio captchas I've encountered would be the few recordings I've heard that John Lennon used to give out as gifts: he'd record multiple radios playing different stations.
I did once get an audio captcha that was almost solvable -- AFAICT, it was a conversation between C'thullu in his native tongue and Tom Waits responding in Aramaic, recorded in a crowded airport terminal that had lots of loudspeaker announcements.