Building my own reCAPTCHA alternative

2 min read 6 months ago
Published on Apr 23, 2024 This response is partially generated with the help of AI. It may contain inaccuracies.

Table of Contents

Building a Secure reCAPTCHA Alternative Tutorial

  1. Introduction to the Project:

    • In this tutorial, we will be building a secure alternative to Google reCAPTCHA. The goal is to create a system that effectively prevents bots from interacting with a chatbot while minimizing the impact on legitimate users.
  2. Understanding the Problem with Google reCAPTCHA:

    • Google reCAPTCHA is known to be resource-intensive, downloading large amounts of data (up to 1.8 megabytes) for each interaction.
    • The speaker demonstrates how removing Google reCAPTCHA can save up to 93% of bandwidth by simply deleting it.
  3. Implementing Blowfish Hashing for Proof of Work:

    • The alternative solution utilizes Blowfish hashing for proof of work, making it computationally intensive for bots to interact with the chatbot.
    • Blowfish hashing ensures that creating the necessary hash takes a significant amount of CPU resources, making it impractical for malicious clients to generate multiple requests.
  4. Dynamic Key Generation and Time Stamp Management:

    • The system dynamically generates public and private keys based on Unix timestamps, ensuring that the keys change regularly.
    • A set timeout function updates the keys every 10 minutes, further enhancing security by rejecting keys that are too old.
  5. Testing the System:

    • The speaker demonstrates how the system works by interacting with the chatbot and generating a new Blowfish hash for each interaction.
    • The system effectively prevents bots from invoking the chatbot repeatedly by requiring frequent key updates.
  6. Benefits of the Alternative Solution:

    • By implementing this alternative solution, the system can effectively deter bots while maintaining a seamless user experience.
    • The computational intensity of generating new keys makes it economically unfeasible for most bots to exploit the system.
  7. Conclusion:

    • By following this tutorial, you can create a secure alternative to Google reCAPTCHA that significantly reduces bandwidth usage and prevents malicious bot interactions.
    • Thank you for watching and have a nice day!

By following these steps, you can create a secure alternative to Google reCAPTCHA that effectively prevents bots from interacting with your chatbot while minimizing the impact on legitimate users.