Enhanced captchas

• US 9,563,763 B1
• Filed: 05/21/2013
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wierer, Jeffrey John, Roth, Gregory Branchek
• Primary Examiner(s): Dolly, Kendall
• Application Number:
  US13/899,146
• Time in Patent Office: 1,358 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/30 Authentication, i.e. establishing the identity or authorisation of security principals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/36 by graphic or iconic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2133 Verifying human interaction, e.g., Captcha

Abstract

Concepts and technologies are described herein for providing enhanced Completely Automated Public Turing tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (“CAPTCHAs”). According to some of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a CAPTCHA service may be configured to generate CAPTCHAs enhanced with watermarks and/or other enhancements. The CAPTCHA service may provide the enhanced CAPTCHAs to user services, such as Websites, Web services, and other services that utilize or are capable of utilizing CAPTCHAs as a security feature. The watermarks and/or other enhancements may contain information associated with users of the user services so that the enhanced CAPTCHAs are more difficult to break by unauthorized entities, including automated programs such as “bots.” According to other concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a CAPTCHA breaking service is provided.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing a Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (“

CAPTCHA”

), the computer-implemented method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for;

receiving a request to generate a CAPTCHA;

obtaining user data comprising personally identifiable information;

generating the CAPTCHA based, at least partially, upon the obtained user data, wherein the generated CAPTCHA contains a question indirectly asked regarding the personally identifiable information;

transmitting the CAPTCHA in response to the request;

receiving a CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA;

comparing the CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA to a correct solution for the CAPTCHA, the correct solution comprising an answer to the question contained in the generated CAPTCHA;

determining, based upon the comparison, that the received CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA matches the correct solution for the CAPTCHA; and

causing access to a service to be provided in response to determining that the received CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA matches the correct solution for the CAPTCHA.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the personally identifiable information is selected such that a user knowing the personally identifiable information is more likely to provide a correct solution to the CAPTCHA than a user that does not know the personally identifiable information.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the correct solution to the CAPTCHA is sent with the CAPTCHA.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the generated CAPTCHA is a watermarked CAPTCHA.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the watermarked CAPTCHA is generated by overlaying a watermark enhancement on a CAPTCHA or at least one character of the CAPTCHA, positioning the watermark enhancement above, below, or adjacent to the CAPTCHA or at least one character of the CAPTCHA, or embedding the watermark enhancement within the CAPTCHA or at least one character of the CAPTCHA.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the CAPTCHA comprises an invisible watermark including data for consumption by a break CAPTCHA module.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the invisible watermark comprises the user data.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the question indirectly asked is presented by using an image to represent an object asked in the question.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for providing a Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (“

CAPTCHA”

), having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to;

receive a request to access a service;

in response to receiving the request to access the service, transmit a request to a CAPTCHA service for a CAPTCHA, the request for the CAPTCHA comprising user data to be incorporated in the CAPTCHA, the user data comprising personally identifiable information;

receive the CAPTCHA in response to the request, the CAPTCHA being generated based, at least in part, upon the user data and containing an implied question regarding the personally identifiable information without being presented in a form of question;

present the received CAPTCHA;

receive a solution to the CAPTCHA;

determine that the received solution to the CAPTCHA matches a correct solution to the CAPTCHA, the correct solution comprising an answer to the implied question contained in the received CAPTCHA; and

provide access to the service in response to determining that the received solution to the CAPTCHA matches the correct solution to the CAPTCHA.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the correct solution to the CAPTCHA is received with the CAPTCHA.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the personally identifiable information about the user is selected such that the user is more likely to provide a correct solution to the CAPTCHA than another user that does not know the personally identifiable information.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the generated CAPTCHA is a watermarked CAPTCHA.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the watermarked CAPTCHA includes an invisible watermark containing the user data.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the user data is contained in a visible portion of the watermarked CAPTCHA.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the implied question is presented by using an image to represent an object asked in the implied question.

16. A computer-implemented method, for providing a Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (“

CAPTCHA”

), comprising performing computer-implemented operations for;

receiving a request to access a service;

in response to receiving the request to access the service, transmitting a request to a CAPTCHA service for a CAPTCHA,

the request for the CAPTCHA comprising user data to be incorporated in the CAPTCHA, the user data comprising personally identifiable information;

receiving the CAPTCHA in response to the request, the CAPTCHA being generated based, at least partially, upon the user data and containing an implied question regarding the personally identifiable information without being presented in a form of question, wherein a correct solution to the generated CAPTCHA comprises an answer to the implied question contained in the generated CAPTCHA;

presenting the received CAPTCHA;

receiving a solution to the CAPTCHA;

determining that the received solution to the CAPTCHA matches a correct solution to the CAPTCHA; and

causing access to the service to be provided in response to determining that the received solution to the CAPTCHA matches the correct solution to the CAPTCHA.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the personally identifiable information is selected such that a user knowing the personally identifiable information is more likely to provide a correct solution to the CAPTCHA than a user that does not know the personally identifiable information.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the user data is contained in a visible portion of the CAPTCHA.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the user data is contained in an invisible portion of the CAPTCHA.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the CAPTCHA comprises metadata containing a value associated with the CAPTCHA.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the CAPTCHA comprises metadata for consumption by a break CAPTCHA module.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the correct solution for the CAPTCHA is received with the CAPTCHA.

23. A system for creating a Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (“

CAPTCHA”

) comprising one or more computing devices that comprise;

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more computing devices to

receive a request for a CAPTCHA,

receive user data comprising personally identifiable information,

generate a CAPTCHA based, at least partially, upon the user data, wherein the generated CAPTCHA contains an implied question regarding the personally identifiable information without being presented in a form of question, and wherein a correct solution to the CAPTCHA comprises an answer to the implied question contained in the CAPTCHA, and

send the CAPTCHA in response to the request,

receive a CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA,

compare the CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA to the correct solution to the CAPTCHA,

determine, based upon the comparison, that the received CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA matches the correct solution to the CAPTCHA, and

cause access to a service to be provided in response to determining that the received CAPTCHA solution for the CAPTCHA matches the correct solution to the CAPTCHA.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the personally identifiable information is selected such that a user knowing the personally identifiable information is more likely to provide a correct solution to the CAPTCHA than a user that does not know the personally identifiable information.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the user data is contained in a visible portion of the CAPTCHA.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the user data is contained in an invisible portion of the CAPTCHA.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the CAPTCHA comprises metadata containing a value associated with the CAPTCHA.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the CAPTCHA comprises metadata for consumption by a break CAPTCHA module.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the correct solution for the CAPTCHA is sent with the CAPTCHA in response to the request.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the generated CAPTCHA is a watermarked CAPTCHA.

31. The system of claim 23, wherein the implied question is presented by using an image to represent an object asked in the implied question.