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The robustness of a new CAPTCHA

The robustness of a new CAPTCHA
The robustness of a new CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA is a standard security technology that presents tests to tell computers and humans apart. In this paper, we examine the security of a new CAPTCHA that was deployed until very recently by Megaupload, a leading online storage and delivery website. The security of this scheme relies on a novel segmentation resistance mechanism. However, we show that this CAPTCHA can be segmented using a simple but new automated attack with a success rate of 78%. It takes about 120 ms on average to segment each challenge on a standard desktop computer.

CAPTCHA, Gestalt perception, Robustness, Segmentation attack
36-41
El Ahmad, Ahmad Salah
e6e3d56d-a029-404f-aca6-14a8d54d2f43
Yan, Jeff
a2c03187-3722-46c8-b73b-439eb9d1a10e
Marshall, Lindsay
d8748f0a-584d-465e-b8b9-775fb5b32b32
El Ahmad, Ahmad Salah
e6e3d56d-a029-404f-aca6-14a8d54d2f43
Yan, Jeff
a2c03187-3722-46c8-b73b-439eb9d1a10e
Marshall, Lindsay
d8748f0a-584d-465e-b8b9-775fb5b32b32

El Ahmad, Ahmad Salah, Yan, Jeff and Marshall, Lindsay (2010) The robustness of a new CAPTCHA. In Proceedings of the 3rd European Workshop on System Security, EUROSEC'10. pp. 36-41 . (doi:10.1145/1752046.1752052).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

CAPTCHA is a standard security technology that presents tests to tell computers and humans apart. In this paper, we examine the security of a new CAPTCHA that was deployed until very recently by Megaupload, a leading online storage and delivery website. The security of this scheme relies on a novel segmentation resistance mechanism. However, we show that this CAPTCHA can be segmented using a simple but new automated attack with a success rate of 78%. It takes about 120 ms on average to segment each challenge on a standard desktop computer.

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More information

Published date: 2010
Venue - Dates: 3rd European Workshop on System Security, EUROSEC'10, , Paris, France, 2010-04-13 - 2010-04-13
Keywords: CAPTCHA, Gestalt perception, Robustness, Segmentation attack

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 500863
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/500863
PURE UUID: c7746f5a-a1ab-4c0a-9b72-6d07ae82a227

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Date deposited: 14 May 2025 16:50
Last modified: 14 May 2025 16:51

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Contributors

Author: Ahmad Salah El Ahmad
Author: Jeff Yan
Author: Lindsay Marshall

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