Password in Image Technology

Does anyone know anything about the technology that a lot of people use including Network Solutions, that displays a password in a fuzzy image and forces the user to type in that password to proceed? I'm assuming it's primary purpose is to stop automated hacking technology from abusing forms. Lee Surma

you gotter otter ;-) pretty simple really...the image is obscurred so OCR software can't read the "special code" and post the form automatically using what it read Bryan Stevenson B.Comm. VP & Director of E-Commerce Development Electric Edge Systems Group Inc. t. 250.920.8830 e. bryan@electricedgesystems.com --------------------------------------------------------- Macromedia Associate Partner www.macromedia.com --------------------------------------------------------- Vancouver Island ColdFusion Users Group Founder & Director www.cfug-vancouverisland.com   Does anyone know anything about the technology that a lot   of people use including Network Solutions, that displays a   password in a fuzzy image and forces the user to type in   that password to proceed? I'm assuming it's primary   purpose is to stop automated hacking technology from   abusing forms.   Lee Surma

>>the image is obscurred so OCR software can't read the "special code" Exact, and some use similar character, like I and 1, Z and 2, S and 5, etc. in order to goof the OCR systems even more. -- _______________________________________ REUSE CODE! Use custom tags; See http://www.contentbox.com/claude/customtags/tagstore.cfm (Please send any spam to this address: piegeacon@internetique.com) Thanks.

I think the question is more a how-to, I have been reading the image functions in PHP for creatnig new images from PNG's or simply from scratch. That is how a lot of sites do it by adding an overlay and adding a filter to a set of characters... so you could do the following in PGP: Create image add text add overlay to confuse it add a distortion filter to confuse OCR systems I hope this helps (as you can run PGP and CF together on most systems!) Regards Mark Drew ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

You can do all these things using ImageMagick (I think). For more info on images, google for "captcha" -- Hugo Ahlenius ------------------------------------------------------------- Hugo Ahlenius                  E-Mail: hugo.ahlenius@grida.no Project Officer                Phone:            +46 8 230460 UNEP GRID-Arendal              Fax:              +46 8 230441 Stockholm Office               Mobile:         +46 733 467111                                WWW:       http://www.grida.no ------------------------------------------------------------- | -----Original Message----- | | Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2004 10:38 | To: CF-Talk | Subject: Re: Password in Image Technology | | I think the question is more a how-to, I have been reading | the image functions in PHP for creatnig new images from PNG's | or simply from scratch. That is how a lot of sites do it by | adding an overlay and adding a filter to a set of | characters... so you could do the following in PGP: | Create image | add text | add overlay to confuse it | add a distortion filter to confuse OCR systems | | | I hope this helps (as you can run PGP and CF together on most | systems!) | | | Regards | | Mark Drew | | On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 15:02:48 -0400, Claude Schneegans | <schneegans@internetique.com> wrote: | > | > >>the image is obscurred so OCR software can't read the | "special code" | > | > Exact, and some use similar character, like I and 1, Z and | 2, S and 5, etc. in order to goof the OCR systems even more. | > | > -- | > _______________________________________ | > REUSE CODE! Use custom tags; | > See http://www.contentbox.com/claude/customtags/tagstore.cfm | > (Please send any spam to this address: piegeacon@internetique.com) | > Thanks. | > | > | |