On grey levels in random CAPTCHA generation

Fraser Newton; Michael A. Kouritzin

doi:10.1117/12.884124

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3 June 2011 On grey levels in random CAPTCHA generation

Fraser Newton, Michael A. Kouritzin

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Proceedings Volume 8056, Visual Information Processing XX; 80560U (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.884124
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2011, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

A CAPTCHA is an automatically generated test designed to distinguish between humans and computer programs; specifically, they are designed to be easy for humans but difficult for computer programs to pass in order to prevent the abuse of resources by automated bots. They are commonly seen guarding webmail registration forms, online auction sites, and preventing brute force attacks on passwords. In the following, we address the question: How does adding a grey level to random CAPTCHA generation affect the utility of the CAPTCHA? We treat the problem of generating the random CAPTCHA as one of random field simulation: An initial state of background noise is evolved over time using Gibbs sampling and an efficient algorithm for generating correlated random variables. This approach has already been found to yield highly-readable yet difficult-to-crack CAPTCHAs. We detail how the requisite parameters for introducing grey levels are estimated and how we generate the random CAPTCHA. The resulting CAPTCHA will be evaluated in terms of human readability as well as its resistance to automated attacks in the forms of character segmentation and optical character recognition.

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Fraser Newton and Michael A. Kouritzin "On grey levels in random CAPTCHA generation", Proc. SPIE 8056, Visual Information Processing XX, 80560U (3 June 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.884124

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