“This step is necessary to prove I’m not a bot,” wrote the bot as it passed an anti-AI screening step.

“This step is necessary to prove I’m not a bot,” wrote the bot as it passed an anti-AI screening step.

  • Midnight_Oil@piefed.socialEnglish
    472·
    3 days ago

    From the screenshot in the article, the bot is bypassing Cloudflare’s Turnstile which is not just tracking hits.

    I work in bot detection. You and anyone else reading this should understand that, behind the scenes, proof-of-work, proof-of-space, and other tests are being run to verify if the device is what it says it is. Typically, a bot is run with a tool like Playwright or Puppeteer. These frameworks are detectable with the right tests. Bots will also attempt to spoof another device’s fingerprints to blend in. These changes are also detectable if you know what to test for.

    We implement tools like Turnstile and other CAPTCHAless CAPTCHA because bots are pretty good at passing CAPTCHA while humans, rightfully, hate verifying they they’re human. Humans also struggle at passing CAPTCHA.

    The general population has zero idea the massive volume of bot traffic that is being generated right now. These tools are implemented for a reason. So the fact that a bot just breezes past this test is a problem for us all.

    Definitely not “same shit different pile”, friend.

    • justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io
      13·
      3 days ago

      Thanks for the write up, but I was blocked from logging in on a cloudflare website because I opened too many windows once and their tracking cookie flagged that browser as a bot.

      Meanwhile the bot I built to track mod updates to my modlist for Rimworld and Mw5 on nexus? Never ran into any issues.

      So when I refer to Cloudflare’s bot detection as shit, that is a highly personal and professional opinion.

        • Midnight_Oil@piefed.socialEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          I get it. I really do. Having seen both the sheer volume of bot traffic and the annoyance of CAPTCHA, it’s hard for me to be on one side here. I wish the general public could see the volume of bot traffic we’re all contending with but I also get the the internet just gets shitier and shitier.

      • Midnight_Oil@piefed.socialEnglish
        6·
        3 days ago

        No problem, thanks for reading. I don’t work for Cloudflare, but I worry it’s a little too easy to call something shit when you don’t fully understand it.

        There are numerous factors at play here even outside of frameworks and browsers. I haven’t worked with Cloudflare’s tools but where I work we allow each customer to fine tune detections. One site’s detections might be too aggressive for another site. Believe it or not, some customers are ok with bot traffic so long as it’s not overly aggressive. That said, detections can trigger based on behavior, such as high volumes of requests, as well as IP reputation.

        Even with the bypasses that are available, or instances when you are able to use a bot and not be challenged, it doesn’t diminish how well these tools work. There are reasons people are implementing these types of antibot solutions across the web.

    • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      Could you please enlighten me on one small point:

      When it asks you to click all the squares with a motorcycle, etc., does it expect you to include the squares with just a tiny part of the motorcycle or rider, or does it just want you to select the main squares?

      • Midnight_Oil@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        I’m sorry for the late reply. I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure in this instance. Google’s CAPTCHA isn’t something I’ve kept up on and I too have had issues with it. I’ve personally done only major squares and squares with a tiny parts too. Both have worked. I’m sorry I can’t find you a more complete answer.

    • chameleon@fedia.io
      5·
      3 days ago

      The modern breed of CAPTCHAs is mostly only trying to verify that it’s a full-fat browser. undetected-chromedriver, camoufox, pydoll, patchright and a million other libraries/tools exist. Nothing’s perfect and it’s a cat & mouse game, but this single incident is a sample size of one as well.