Although CAPTCHAs are good for security, many users find CAPTCHAs to be annoying. Time is wasted on them, and you may not be able to solve them right away. In other words, how can you get around them without making it appear as if you are a robot? It is possible to circumvent CAPTCHAs on the Internet by using tools that allow you to examine each image and read the scrambled words without having to deal with the headache of deciphering the information.
The CAPTCHA can appear anywhere on the Internet, at any time. Possibly you have not seen them before on a website, but you may encounter them frequently, and you cannot identify a pattern. It would be helpful to discuss why CAPTCHAs appear, what their functionality is, and what types are available.
Table of Contents
What is CAPTCHA
The acronym CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. A Turing test is a way to determine whether a machine is capable of thinking like a human being.
CAPTCHA is used by websites to prevent unwanted traffic, such as automated scripts and bots, from logging in, signing up, or simply browsing their content, as it increases traffic dramatically and may lead to spamming. To put it simply, it is used to verify that you are a real person with the intention of conducting a legitimate online transaction.
Types of CAPTCHAs
Originally developed in 1997, CAPTCHAs have undergone several iterations to keep pace with the advancing digital world. It has evolved from simple translation to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to differentiate between a human and a robot based on your browsing habits.
CAPTCHA
A product was initially developed that required users to input text from an image that contained random alphabets and numbers in order to prove they were human. It was named as CAPTCHA.
CAPTCHA was later upgraded with slight modifications and named reCAPTCHA.
reCAPTCHA
reCAPTCHA was developed in 2007. Since the ideology of CAPTCHAs is to eliminate spammers, reCAPTCHA was adopted by Google in 2009.
reCAPTCHA initially started out as a line running through 2 different words which have to be entered as text by the human.
In later developments and iterations, reCAPTCHA began to use images from Google Street View to combat bots. As of now, users are asked to mark the boxes with a fire hydrant, traffic light, hill, or mountain. The image below illustrates what I mean:
reCAPTCHA V3
Since experiencing CAPTCHAs is an added headache for the users, Google came up with reCAPTCHA v3. It is now the most advanced version of CAPTCHA launched by Google back in 2018.
You have probably never encountered this type of CAPTCHA before. The reason is that it operates in the background, preventing any user interaction. By analyzing the network traffic and browsing patterns, the algorithm can distinguish between a human and a bot.
reCAPTCHA v3 helps websites escape spammers while their genuine traffic is undisturbed, bringing in more legitimate traffic.
The next time you experience a CAPTCHA, you will then know just how advanced the website is based on the version of CAPTCHA they are using.
Bypass CAPTCHA on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi
In a study by Baymard Institute, it was discovered that only 66 percent of human beings get a CAPTCHA correct on their first attempt. This indicates that CAPTCHAs are not that easy to fill in by humans. Moreover, with the advancements in technology, AI has become capable enough to bypass CAPTCHAs! This is exactly the case, and today we will discuss how you can use it to your advantage.
There are online browser extensions available that you can use to automatically fill in and complete CAPTCHAs on your behalf. We have tested out a few for different browsers. Here is what we discovered.
ReCaptcha Solver
Our favorite is the ReCaptcha Solver. This is because this browser extension automatically detects and clicks on the captcha to solve it. Not only that, it then deciphers the CAPTCHA and then submits it if required to proceed to the next web page.
The human is not required to take any action. You can install the tool by using the following links and begin using it immediately.
ReCaptcha Solver is available in the following browsers:
Note: You may require to allow Microsoft Edge to install extensions from Google Store, as they are supported. In this case, you can use the same extension from Google across all the mentioned web browsers.
Buster – CAPTCHA solver for humans
Buster is a web browser extension that solves complex CAPTCHAs automatically. However, you do need to check the box next to “I’m not a robot” manually before you can start using it.
Buster is available for the following web browsers:
You can install the Buster browser extension by clicking on the respective link above. Once installed, simply click on the checkbox in the CAPTCHA, and then click on the Buster icon at the bottom of the CAPTCHA window.
Buster will then automatically do its work and resolve the CAPTCHA for you. It can take up to 30 seconds for it to do its job. However, it only takes about 5 seconds for the simple ones.
Rumola
Rumola is another browser extension that can be added to bypass CAPTCHAs. However, this is designed only to handle the basic CAPTCHA, that is entering plain numbers and alphabets. The images and audio cannot be resolved.
However, the user still needs to check the box beside “I’m not a robot” manually.
Rumola is available for the following browsers:
Note: You may require to allow Microsoft Edge to install extensions from Google Store, as they are supported. In this case, you can use the same extension from Google across all the mentioned web browsers.
I’m not a robot captcha clicker
This browser extension does exactly what the name says. It automatically detects and clicks on the checkbox beside “I’m not a robot.” But that is it. If you are required to solve a complex CAPTCHA, I’m not a robot captcha clicker who will not and cannot solve it for you.
This extension is available for the following web browsers:
Auto Captcha Solver
Auto Captcha Solver is another browser extension that clicks the checkbox but somehow does not solve the CAPTCHA it encounters. Therefore, Auto Captcha Solver is at the bottom of our list.
This extension is available for the following web browsers:
There are other available extensions as well, like Captcha Recognizer for Microsoft Edge, and Captcha Solutions for Google Chrome. However, upon investigating, we found that these do not work as promised.
These are the add-ons that you can use to avoid dealing with CAPTCHAs. However, there are other ways you can avoid, or at least reduce your encounters with CAPTCHAs.
How to avoid CAPTCHA
You may often encounter CAPTCHAs because a website may have detected unusual activity coming from your network. This can be due to several reasons. Here is how you can resolve the issue without having to solve any CAPTCHAs at all.
Disable VPN
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) often bounce traffic from many servers around the world. A website may detect this activity as malicious, and therefore presents a CAPTCHA to prove that you are not a robot.
Disabling the VPN will most likely mitigate this issue for you.
Reduce number of clicks per minute
It may be possible that your fast mouse clicks are registered as spam with the website, and therefore presents a CAPTCHA. If you think you are being too fast for the internet, we suggest that you try slowing down your click rate so that the website believes that it is in fact a human using the computer.
You can also perform a number of other tasks to reduce your interaction with CAPTCHAs. Read this blog post to avoid unusual traffic passing onto the website.
Cons of using CAPTCHA
We have already highlighted the pros of CAPTCHAs in this post; which is to filter out spammers online. However, if you are the owner of a website, we suggest that you consider these aspects before implementing a CAPTCHA yourself.
User experience
The user experience is greatly affected by CAPTCHAs. They are a nuisance for the user and a waste of their time. This puts the user in a bad mood, hence affecting the reason for their visit to your website.
Bad for business
With CAPTCHAs, you are basically adding another reason for the consumer to not visit your website, which in turn is driving away potential business. A consumer would rather buy something from a website that is more user-friendly, than the one that requires authentication of the fact that you are a human.
Robots can bypass CAPTCHAs
The list of extensions we have shared in this article to bypass CAPTCHAs is proof that bots can bypass them as well. They are much smarter than these basic extensions, and can manipulate even the smartest reCAPTCHA iterations. So why bother with a CAPTCHA in the first place?
Conclusion
For anyone still asking whether robots can bypass these complex CAPTCHAs; yes, they can. Technology has come a long way to stop here, and AI is going to keep evolving, and so is the technology that is trying to prevent it from gaining access to things it is not supposed to.
