Scrambled CAPTCHA Image Segmentation for Malware Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Malicious software can trick human users into providing correct CAPTCHA responses by displaying scrambled CAPTCHA images, allowing unauthorized access to computer systems.
Innovation Solution
Scrambling CAPTCHA images by cutting them into sections, randomly rearranging, and transmitting the scrambled version with unscrambling code, ensuring only the original image is displayed and responded to by human users, while malware cannot unscramble it.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If CAPTCHA images are transmitted in scrambled form to prevent malware from reading them, then security is improved, but the image must be unscrambled for display which adds complexity to the system
Solution Approach 1:
The CAPTCHA image is divided into multiple separate image sections that are transmitted individually. Each section contains only a portion of the original image data, making it useless to malware that cannot reconstruct the complete image without the unscrambling code.
Solution Approach 2:
The unscrambling code is generated and embedded in the web page code before the image sections are transmitted. This preliminary preparation ensures that when the browser receives the image sections, it can immediately reconstruct and display the original CAPTCHA image without requiring additional server-side processing.
2Ease of operation
If the original CAPTCHA image is displayed to users, then ease of operation is improved, but malware can read and solve the CAPTCHA, reducing security
Solution Approach 1:
The browser acts as an intermediary that receives scrambled image sections and reconstructs the original CAPTCHA image for display. The browser executes the unscrambling code locally, serving as a mediator between the transmitted scrambled data and the user's view of the clear image, while preventing malware from accessing the unscrambled version.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a computing device determines a Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA). The CAPTCHA includes a first static image that has image sections that are arranged in a first order. Each of the image sections corresponds to a unique identifier. The CAPTCHA further includes a second static image that includes each of the image sections of the first static image that are arranged in a second order. The computing device generates web-browser-executable code for converting the second static image to the first static image based on the first static image, the first order, and the unique identifiers. The computing device sends the second static image and the web-browser-executable code to a client device.