Η Cloudflare, a DNS service provider company has said it wants to replace the web-wide CAPTCHA "craze" with an entirely new system.
CAPTCHAs are these tests that you must do when trying to connect to a service, which ask you to click on images of things like buses or crossings or bicycles to prove that you are human.
(The name CAPTCHA, if you didn't know, comes from the initials of “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”) The problem is that they add extra time to using the web and can sometimes be difficult to solve – I'm sure I'm not the only one who failed a CAPTCHA because I didn't see the corner of a crosswalk in an image .
In a blog post, Cloudflare says it intends to "get rid of CAPTCHA completely" by replacing them with a new way to prove that you are human by touching or looking at a device using a system called "Cryptographic Attestation of Personality". Currently, it only supports a limited number of USB security keys such as YubiKeys, but you can try the Cloudflare system (without USB) on the company website.
https://cloudflarechallenge.com/
Το δοκίμασα και λειτούργησε υπέροχα. Το μόνο που έπρεπε να κάνω ήταν 1 κλικ στο κουμπί “I am human (beta)” και, στη συνέχεια, να ακολουθήσω μερικές οδηγίες για την επιλέξετε του κλειδιού ασφαλείας μου, Στη συνέχεια, έπρεπε να επιτρέψω στον ιστότοπο να έχει access in the key.
The whole process took a while seconds and I have to admit it was really nice not to have to search for images of buses and things that look like buses. And in addition to the speed of everything, this new method could have a significant accessibility benefit, as visually impaired people may not be able to complete the CAPTCHAs that are out there today.
What happens behind the scenes with the new method?
In short, your device has a built-in secure drive that contains a unique key that is sealed by your manufacturer. The security unit is able to prove that it holds such a key without disclosing it. Cloudflare asks you for proof and verifies that your manufacturer is legitimate.
You can read a much more extensive explanation at company blog.
Although it's a very interesting idea, it's probably not the end of CAPTCHAs as we know them. For starters, Cloudflare says this is an experiment and is currently available "in limited English-speaking areas." In its current state, it only works with a limited set of hardware: YubiKeys, HyperFIDO keys, and Thetis FIDO U2F keys
Η Cloudflare promises to "consider adding more verifiers as soon as possible." This could be extended to your phone: Cloudflare recommends using a phone on your computer to pass a wireless signature using NFC.
Google can treat both iPhones and Android as natural security keys. If Google and Apple were to use the Cloudflare method, they could significantly reduce the barrier by using USB, as smartphones are much more common than USB security.
