GENERATING HUMAN INTERACTIVE PROOFS

• US 20100212018A1
• Filed: 02/19/2009
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rangarajan, Aparna, Poluri, Ravi Kiran, Li, Weisheng, Shami, Usman Ahmed
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,465 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/316 by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect

Abstract

A method for generating one or more human interactive proofs (HIPs) is described herein. A HIP request may be received. One of a plurality of HIP engines may be selected using a randomization algorithm. Each HIP engine may have a distinct algorithm for generating the one or more HIPs. The one or more HIPs may be generated using the one of the plurality of HIP engines.

Claims

1. A method for generating one or more human interactive proofs (HIPs), comprising:

receiving a human interactive proof (HIP) request;

selecting one of a plurality of HIP engines using a randomization algorithm, each HIP engine having a distinct algorithm for generating the one or more HIPs; and

generating the one or more HIPs using the one of the plurality of HIP engines.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the HIP request is received from a spammer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising sending the one or more generated HIPs to the spammer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting one of a plurality of configurations, each configuration specifying the plurality of HIP engines, one or more parameters for each of the plurality of HIP engines, or both;

and wherein the one of the plurality of HIP engines is selected based on the one of the plurality of configurations.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one of the plurality of configurations specifies a period of time for which the one of the plurality of HIP engines is selected.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the one of the plurality of configurations specifies a percentage of time that the one of the plurality of HIP engines is to be selected.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting one of a plurality of configurations, each configuration specifying the plurality of HIP engines, one or more parameters for each of the plurality of HIP engines, or both;

and wherein the one or more HIPs are generated based on the one of the plurality of configurations.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one of the plurality of configurations specifies a period of time for which the one or more HIPs are generated.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising randomly assigning one or more values to the parameters.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the HIP request is received from a spammer and further comprising:

tracking a success rate of the spammer for solving the one or more HIPs that are generated based on the one of the plurality of configurations; and

removing the one of the plurality of configurations from the plurality of configurations if the success rate exceeds a specified threshold.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of HIP engines is a character based HIP engine.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of HIP engines is an image based HIP engine.

13. A memory for storing data for access by an application program being executed on a processor, the memory comprising:

a data structure for representing a configuration table, the data structure comprising;

a first configuration for generating a human interactive proof (HIP), the first configuration comprising;

a first combination of HIP engines from which a first HIP engine is selected to generate the HIP;

a first set of parameters used to generate the HIP; and

a first period of time that the first configuration is to be used for generating the HIP; and

a second configuration for generating the HIP, the second configuration comprising;

a second combination of HIP engines from which a second HIP engine is selected to generate the HIP;

a second set of parameters used to generate the HIP; and

a second period of time that the second configuration is to be used for generating the HIP.

14. The memory of claim 13, wherein the first configuration further comprises a set of values from which a value is randomly selected for one of the first set of parameters.

15. The memory of claim 13, wherein the first configuration further comprises a range of values within which a value is randomly selected for one of the first set of parameters.

16. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising program instructions executable by the processor to;

receive a plurality of HIP requests;

randomly select a first HIP engine from a first plurality of HIP engines specified in a first configuration;

generate a first set of HIPs using the first HIP engine for a first period of time;

randomly select a second HIP engine from a second plurality of HIP engines specified in a second configuration; and

generate a second set of HIPs using the second HIP engine for a second period of time, wherein the first period of time and the second period of time are non concurrent.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of HIP requests is received from a spammer and the memory further comprises program instructions executable by the processor to send the first set of generated HIPs to the spammer.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the memory further comprises program instructions executable by the processor to send the second set of generated HIPs to the spammer.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the memory further comprises program instructions executable by the processor to:

track a first success rate of the spammer for solving the first set of HIPs;

track a second success rate of the spammer for solving the second set of HIPs;

delete the first configuration if the first success rate exceeds a specified threshold; and

delete the second configuration if the second success rate exceeds the specified threshold.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the memory further comprises program instructions executable by the processor to randomly assign one or more values to a parameter for the first HIP engine.