[FIXED!] Captcha - remove it now

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FMX
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29 Sep 2013, 3:34 pm

For anyone losing posts to the CAPTCHA I can highly recommend the Lazarus browser extension. See my sig link or just google it.

Cornflake wrote:

^ Yes, true - but for every single one, even on the same login session and even after successfully completing many previously? Like within the last 30 minutes? Is a scammer really likely to pop up in the middle of this activity from the same IP?

I found that strange as well and asked CloudFlare support about it. They explained that what we're seeing here is not the "anti-spam" CAPTCHA, but the "web application firewall (WAF)" CAPTCHA. The anti-spam one sets a cookie once solved successfully and should not come up again for a while. The WAF one is based on the post content: it looks for attacks (like XSS or SQL injection) and will come up every time for content that CloudFlare detects as "suspect". The two CAPTCHA pages look the same, so you can't tell which one you're getting just by looking at it.

Cornflake wrote:

There have also been cases where I'm CAPTCHA'd on every preview but not on the actual post - and vice-versa. What's that all about?

My only guess is that you edited the content for the final post. If it was exactly the same as on the preview that would be very odd. But who knows, maybe it considers factors other than the POST data as well?

Fixing this should literally be a matter of logging into the CloudFlare control panel and changing a setting (WAF rules sensitivity) - 2 minutes at most. But it seems that, for reasons of his own, the only person who is able to do so will not.

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Last edited by FMX on 29 Sep 2013, 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Kuribo
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29 Sep 2013, 3:38 pm

Thanks for posting FMX. Very informative.

Cornflake, would you be able to contact Alex to explain what FMX has said?

Cornflake
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29 Sep 2013, 4:20 pm

Thank you so much FMX, that is absolutely brilliant and extremely useful to know.

Quote:

The anti-spam one sets a cookie once solved successfully and should not come up again for a while

This is exactly how I'm sure we all expect a CAPTCHA to work and I couldn't think how might be possible to "subvert" that into pestering us at almost every tweak to a post, but that "WAF" CAPTCHA explains it perfectly. Well, "mostly perfectly" - it's still far too sensitive about content and having it object to the addition of BBCode "quote" tags is extremely silly.

As for my being CAPTCHA'd for previews but not for the final post - all I can say at the moment (unless it happens again!) is that I am very certain that's how it went, but I'll admit that could be blurred by a fog of extreme frustration at being forced to deal with these damn things.
But I definitely know there were cases where I was not CAPTCHA'd through several previews and was CAPTCHA'd for the final post: it's something of a routine for me to have that final look at a relatively long post before clicking "Submit" and the frustration at being challenged then only is not easily blurred. :lol:

(as it is, every preview of this is being challenged - probably because of the quote above)

Kuribo, I'll certainly PM Alex (again) about this problem just as soon as I've posted this, and point him at FMX's post.

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alex
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29 Sep 2013, 6:03 pm

i've adjusted the cloudflare settings. please let me know if you still have issues (please wait a bit for it to take affect)

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JanuaryMan
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29 Sep 2013, 6:13 pm

alex wrote:

i've adjusted the cloudflare settings. please let me know if you still have issues (please wait a bit for it to take affect)

Great news :thumleft:

Cornflake
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29 Sep 2013, 6:20 pm

It's certainly stopped the challenges I've been getting while writing/previewing a PM - to you, JM, as it happens. :lol:

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Kuribo
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29 Sep 2013, 7:48 pm

Thank you Alex.

Kuribo
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29 Sep 2013, 7:51 pm

A global announcement thread explaining that the problem has been solved could encourage people who've left to come back.

FMX
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30 Sep 2013, 2:33 am

I've tested a few posts that previously triggered the CAPTCHA and it does seem to be fixed, thanks, Alex.

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Tuttle
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30 Sep 2013, 1:02 pm

Yay!

Jono
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01 Oct 2013, 9:41 am

Thanks, Alex. So, that's why I'm not getting them anymore.

Dox47
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03 Oct 2013, 2:35 am

Captcha is busted again, I'm getting it repeatedly on preview and upon submission of posts.

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Quatermass
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03 Oct 2013, 2:58 am

I got it when I changed my avatar and personalised rank settings. Is that normal?

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Kuribo
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05 Oct 2013, 4:45 am

Quatermass wrote:

I got it when I changed my avatar and personalised rank settings. Is that normal?

Yes, that's normal. It happened before the problem started.

Dox47
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16 Oct 2013, 2:08 am

I'm starting to get them again, along with a higher than usual rate of site errors.

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Cornflake
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16 Oct 2013, 6:13 am

The low-level forum code errors (could not access control lists, could not delete old search id sessions, could not obtain topic watch information, etc etc) appear to be increasing, although that will probably depend on the number of active members at any one time - but I've not seen a CAPTCHA once since Alex posted here.

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