We are mCaptcha. We build kickass CAPTCHA systems that give (DDoS) attackers a run for their money. And we do all of this without tracking your users. Oh and did I mention our UX is great?
Hello and welcome to the May 2022 edition of the monthly report!
mCaptcha, for a while was showing all the signs of a dead project:
no commits on the repositories and no monthly updates. But the project
-is far from dead!
-
-pow_py contains bindings to
-pow_sha256, the
-proof-of-work library
+is far from dead!
pow_py contains bindings to
+pow_sha256, the
+proof-of-work library
that mCaptcha uses. For the uninitiated, the bindings allow for python
-programs to automatically solve mCaptcha.
-So if you are writing a script to do some chore on your favourite
+programs to automatically solve mCaptcha.
So if you are writing a script to do some chore on your favourite
website that is protected by mCaptcha, you can now solve the mCaptcha
-automatically from within the program.
-Here’s an example:
- 1import os
- 2
- 3import mcaptcha_pow_py
- 4import requests
- 5
- 6# get the sitekey that is used in the mCaptcha protected form
- 7SITEKEY = os.getenv("MCAPTCHA_CAPTCHA_SITEKEY")
- 8# the hostname of the mCaptcha instance that the form is using
- 9MCAPTCHA_HOST = os.getenv("MCAPTCHA_CAPTCHA_HOST")
-10
-11
-12GET_CONFIG_ROUTE = f"{MCAPTCHA_HOST}/api/v1/pow/config"
-13VERIFY_POW_ROUTE = f"{MCAPTCHA_HOST}/api/v1/pow/verify"
-14
-15def solve_captcha():
-16
-17 # get challenge configuration
-18 key = {"key": sitekey}
-19 challenge_config = requests.post(GET_CONFIG_ROUTE, json=key)
-20 challenge_config = challenge_config.json()
-21
-22 # extract configuration data
-23 config = mcaptcha_pow_py.PoWConfig(challenge_config["salt"])
-24 pow_string = challenge_config["string"]
-25 pow_difficulty_factor = challenge_config["difficulty_factor"]
-26
-27 # generate work
-28 work = config.work(pow_string, pow_difficulty_factor)
-29
-30 # verify PoW
-31 proof = {
-32 "key": SITEKEY,
-33 "nonce": work.nonce,
-34 "result": work.result,
-35 "string": challenge_config["string"],
-36 }
-37 resp = requests.post(VERIFY_POW_ROUTE, json=proof)
-38 resp = resp.json()
-39
-40 # extract verification token
-41 token = resp["token"]
-42
-43 return token
-44
-45
-46token = solve_captcha()
-47data = {
-48 "username": "me",
-49 "password": "superlongpassword",
-50 "confirm_password": "superlongpassword",
-51 "mcaptcha__token": token,
-52}
-53response = requests.post("/mCaptcha-protected-form", data=data)
-
This could be missed for building DDoS bots(more on that
-here) but this could also be
+automatically from within the program.
Here’s an example:
1import os
+ 2
+ 3import mcaptcha_pow_py
+ 4import requests
+ 5
+ 6# get the sitekey that is used in the mCaptcha protected form
+ 7SITEKEY = os.getenv("MCAPTCHA_CAPTCHA_SITEKEY")
+ 8# the hostname of the mCaptcha instance that the form is using
+ 9MCAPTCHA_HOST = os.getenv("MCAPTCHA_CAPTCHA_HOST")
+10
+11
+12GET_CONFIG_ROUTE = f"{MCAPTCHA_HOST}/api/v1/pow/config"
+13VERIFY_POW_ROUTE = f"{MCAPTCHA_HOST}/api/v1/pow/verify"
+14
+15def solve_captcha():
+16
+17 # get challenge configuration
+18 key = {"key": sitekey}
+19 challenge_config = requests.post(GET_CONFIG_ROUTE, json=key)
+20 challenge_config = challenge_config.json()
+21
+22 # extract configuration data
+23 config = mcaptcha_pow_py.PoWConfig(challenge_config["salt"])
+24 pow_string = challenge_config["string"]
+25 pow_difficulty_factor = challenge_config["difficulty_factor"]
+26
+27 # generate work
+28 work = config.work(pow_string, pow_difficulty_factor)
+29
+30 # verify PoW
+31 proof = {
+32 "key": SITEKEY,
+33 "nonce": work.nonce,
+34 "result": work.result,
+35 "string": challenge_config["string"],
+36 }
+37 resp = requests.post(VERIFY_POW_ROUTE, json=proof)
+38 resp = resp.json()
+39
+40 # extract verification token
+41 token = resp["token"]
+42
+43 return token
+44
+45
+46token = solve_captcha()
+47data = {
+48 "username": "me",
+49 "password": "superlongpassword",
+50 "confirm_password": "superlongpassword",
+51 "mcaptcha__token": token,
+52}
+53response = requests.post("/mCaptcha-protected-form", data=data)
+
This could be missed for building DDoS bots(more on that
+here) but this could also be
used to make CAPTCHA solving automated within screen readers and other
-accessibility devices!
-Measuring DDoS protection effectiveness
-Proof-of-work has historically been a good method to achieve rate
+accessibility devices!
Measuring DDoS protection effectiveness
Proof-of-work has historically been a good method to achieve rate
limiting but how much attack can it, specifically mCaptcha’s
implementation, withstand when compared to an unprotected endpoint? To
find out, we used the recently created Python bindings to the mCaptcha
PoW library, the excellent load testing tool,
-locust and wrote
-mCaptcha/dos!
-VIT AP kindly permitted me, @realaravinth, to use their network
+locust and wrote
+mCaptcha/dos!
VIT AP kindly permitted me, @realaravinth, to use their network
security lab for setting up a isolated, contained testing environment to
-mount a DDoS attack on a test
+mount a DDoS attack on a test
server
-instance.
-The initial topology consisted of one mCaptcha instance, one DDoS demo
+instance.
The initial topology consisted of one mCaptcha instance, one DDoS demo
server, one locust node running in leader configuration and six locust
nodes running in follower configuration. I was authorised to use the
netsec lab for three days, which unfortunately wasn’t enough to go
-finish running the experiment. Dr. Sibi Chakkaravarthy
+finish running the experiment. Dr. Sibi Chakkaravarthy
Sethuraman has kindly offered to
arrange authorisation to use the netsec lab once again in July 2022,
-during which I hope to finish running the experiment
-Special thanks to ackr-8 and
-alan2000alex for help with setting up
-infrastructure of the experiment.
-Refactor
-mCaptcha underwent a major refactor during the month of May: We re-wrote
+during which I hope to finish running the experiment
Special thanks to ackr-8 and
+alan2000alex for help with setting up
+infrastructure of the experiment.
Refactor
mCaptcha underwent a major refactor during the month of May: We re-wrote
and cleaned up all database-related stuff for higher flexibility
and generally good architecture. This refactor lays the foundation
for implementing support for alternate database software
-programs(we currently support PostgreSQL only).
-mCaptcha is now on the Fediverse
-We recently joined the Fediverse on a
-GoToSocial instance run by
+programs(we currently support PostgreSQL only).
mCaptcha is now on the Fediverse
We recently joined the Fediverse on a
+GoToSocial instance run by
@realaravinth. We’ll soon be deleting our Twitter account in favour of
-the Fediverse account.
-Fediverse account:
-@mCaptcha@batsense.net
-Generic hosting
-I, @realaravinth, have been busy with ForgeFlux
-and Hostea — both of which are software
+the Fediverse account.
Fediverse account:
+@mCaptcha@batsense.net
Generic hosting
I, @realaravinth, have been busy with ForgeFlux
+and Hostea — both of which are software
forge related and so
when usable, will mostly improve the Free Software ecosystem. Hostea is
a project that aims to create a libre software development ecosystem and
-provide managed hosting for the same. The project is built by a
+provide managed hosting for the same. The project is built by a
horizontal community, which allows for multiple service providers who
adhere to the Hostea policies to operate
under the Hostea umbrella — essentially allowing for the creation of
-smaller, highly localised cooperatives.
-Cooperatives are interesting, and we believe that mCaptcha, too, can
+smaller, highly localised cooperatives.
Cooperatives are interesting, and we believe that mCaptcha, too, can
benefit from such an architecture as it will prevent any one party from
single-handedly sabotaging the project. The experience gained from
-Hostea will be reused in providing managed hosting for mCaptcha.
-By the end of this year, mCaptcha will reorganise into a horizontal
-community and adopt radical transparency to improve trust and
-reliability of the project
-
-P.S: I, realaravinth, would do it sooner but I’m a little busy right
+Hostea will be reused in providing managed hosting for mCaptcha.
By the end of this year, mCaptcha will reorganise into a horizontal
+community and adopt radical transparency to improve trust and
+reliability of the project
P.S: I, realaravinth, would do it sooner but I’m a little busy right
now, so if someone is interested to help out do reach out and so that
-we could do it sooner!
-
-In context of mCaptcha, radical transparency will include all decisions
+we could do it sooner!
In context of mCaptcha, radical transparency will include all decisions
publicly made, funding and expenses publicly documented, and all
collaborations, too, publicly documented. This of course doesn’t imply
that private, personally identifiable information(addresses and phone
numbers, for instance) will be publicly disclosed. Such information will
-be redacted and published.
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