cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47972724

i encountered this for the first time today while attempting to read something on archive.today.

i confirmed that decoding the qrcode using a computer and following the URL it contains is insufficient; the error it gave directed me here which is what the linked screenshot is of.

the old type of captcha remains available too, for now:

screenshot of text: Important: Mobile verification for Google Cloud Fraud Defense is an experimental challenge type in Preview. Visual and audio challenges are available as alternatives for users who can't complete mobile verification. To use them, click the Visual  or Audio  buttons.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    19 days ago
    1. People without a mobile device are fucked out of being able to pass a captcha

    2. As if this isn’t a way for them to associate multiple sessions on multiple specific devices with one another, this is just another avenue for data collection, period. Hidden under the guise of “more secure.”

      • MrKoyun@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        The point with captchas is not really that bots can’t pass them, more that its too expensive to pass them consistently with a hurtfully large enough volume of bots.

        • HeHoXa@lemmy.zip
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          19 days ago

          I’d heard of this strategy, like making it perform some kind of costly encryption that’s irrelevant to a human user but restrictively expensive for a bot army.

          But does decoding a QR code apply? I never really thought about it. I guess it’s an image, it’s at least a little big by comparison… but it’s also in a restricted, easy to capture spot and maybe could be minimized to a fairly small pixel set? Idk how many key pixels you need to parse a QR code… I guess I could Google

          *typo bit --> bot and bit --> big… I’m full of bit

          • MrKoyun@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            I don’t know much about this new captcha system, but I feel like the challenge wouldn’t really be in the scanning of the qr code itself but more so on making the device you’re scanning with seem legitimate. They could check usage patterns, what apps are installed, how many accounts are added and are they actively used, location and sensor data, are the hardware specifications really unusual, are they constantly trying to complete random captchas… Stuff like that to tell apart a real user’s device from a bot or sandbox. The QR Code is probably just a random ID for which captcha instance the user is trying to pass.

            Also I just realised this but this is probably inconvenient as hell. Like I do NOT want to constantly be picking up my phone to scan QR codes when I’m trying to go around the Internet. What if my phone is on the other side of the house? I don’t want to get up and walk all the way over there! If this gets fully rolled out there may actually be a small dip on the amount of desktop users of websites because they just leave when they are hit wth this captcha instead of bothering to scan a code.

          • Axolotl@feddit.it
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            18 days ago

            Since a QR code is just made of squares, it can be very, very tiny

            1 square = 1 pixel

    • Corngood@lemmy.ml
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      19 days ago

      You don’t have to drink a verification can, but you do need to buy a verification phone.

    • Prove_your_argument@piefed.social
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      19 days ago

      Captcha has been one of the greatest google acquisitions ever.

      They acquired it under the guise of improving OCR and have since morphed it into an AI data farm (how else is google lens gonna know what objects are what?) and now total insight into a users every single action from desktop to mobile, tying it all together into a surveillance nightmare.

      I can guess the permissions that the recaptcha app needs now. Probably something akin to root access with all datapoints and considerations you could think of.

      • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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        18 days ago

        How would that teach Lens to recognise anything other than motorcycles and traffic lights really well?

        • Prove_your_argument@piefed.social
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          18 days ago

          I’ve had many, many not traffic light and motorcycle/bicycle recaptchas. They’re probably leaning a bit into self driving learning the past few years.

          Lens has a lot more data points nowadays after everyone’s google photos was used for training for what, 10+ years at this point?

          Google harvested all human typed words 15 years ago with the google library project. They’ve been hoarding and processing data for models forever.

      • No1@aussie.zone
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        19 days ago

        I used to always add one incorrect tile and skip one correct tile.(It would still pass)

        I thiught I was such a rebel lol

        Then I figured, they’d be stupid if they didn’t show the same image to multiple people…

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      19 days ago

      i have one. but it isn’t android, or ios, or ‘smart’ in any way. it doesn’t even text. it’s just a telephone that fits in my pocket and connects to the cellular networks. it’s all i want. it’s all i use. it’s all i’ve needed ever since i got my first one about 25 years ago.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        19 days ago

        Don’t worry you’re included. Simply visit one of our Accessibility Centers between 8am-9am on odd Wednesdays, with a valid birth certificate, filled-out form from here, and a notarized Charizard.

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        Same! Except mine does do SMS text and has the other flip phone stuff like alarms, timer, calendar.

    • Chulk@lemmy.ml
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      19 days ago

      I imagine scammers are already thinking of ways to use this for phishing too

    • MrKoyun@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      It really should be illegal to build systems that require a user’s access to any unrelated technology. You shouldn’t be forced to have a phone to pay a parking fee or to get on the bus. You shouldn’t need an app to charge your car. You shouldn’t need to use proprietary software from one spesific company to pass a captcha on a random site.

      • Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.works
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        19 days ago

        I mostly use my phone (Pixel with GrapheneOS) as a dumb phone + calendar. But by far the biggest number of apps I have to have on it are the fucking car charger apps.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Yup, and they are being cut out of society everyday. Just losing your phone or even breaking it can be a figurative death sentence. Want to check your email from another device? Did you set up 2 factor with your phone?

      Yeah sorry, can’t access your email.

      • chunes@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        I’m at the point where I’m fine with it. If you want to cut me out for such a silly reason, I don’t want to be included in your dumb thing. I’ll find an alternative that treats me with respect.

    • Kilgore Trout@feddit.it
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      19 days ago

      So those humans will go buy the cheapest they can find which is, surprise, Android + Google Play Services.

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        19 days ago

        No. More likely those people just won’t visit that website and will very easily get the information that they were looking for from the next link down on the search results.

        Google are fucking idiots if they think otherwise.

        • antonim@lemmy.world
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          19 days ago

          the next link down on the search results

          Assuming we’ll have that at all or just AI summaries replacing the results.

    • Prove_your_argument@piefed.social
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      19 days ago

      Sorry, my faith in users is basically zero. These dummies will go to websites that tell them to copy code and run it with win+r. They’re morons and will do anything if a website promises them something.

        • Prove_your_argument@piefed.social
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          13 days ago

          At work? Crowdstrike is kind of the training wheels for people who don’t want to use application whitelisting or group policy that disables users running various terminals.

          Training isn’t the answer, because training is basically an industry propped up by knowbe4 from convincing cybersecurity insurance that it’s the right thing. We do training where I work and everyone falls for the same old shit, raise information, pay information, promotion information and performance review content. Doesn’t matter how many indicators of compromise are hidden in the message, but they’ll gladly just keep clicking along or running code that is prompted because the desire sensor overrides the training.

          Anywho, nowadays not giving users admin rights is simply not enough. The script creating people often know how to use privilege escalation exploits without issue to gain control even when a user can’t. Really need a tool that can detect behavior and block it, or lock the system down somehow.

  • Melobol@lemmy.ml
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    19 days ago

    Is an android emulator able to bypass this? Just curious - I haven’t started the degoogle process.

    • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOP
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      19 days ago

      I would guess not, given the other recent news about degoogled Android devices also being unable to pass reCAPTCHA.

      • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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        19 days ago

        Yeah, it requires a phone that Google can positively identify and connect to a real name / google account somehow.

        Graphene OS won’t work, so this is a non starter for me. Any website using this will simply cease to exist in my eyes.

        • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOP
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          19 days ago

          Any website using this will simply cease to exist in my eyes.

          as i wrote in another recent thread on this topic:

          for some reCaptcha-using websites there actually aren’t alternatives. eg many governments, healthcare providers, public utilities, etc are using it :(

  • brvslvrnst@lemmy.ml
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    19 days ago

    Nice captcha. Would be a shame if someone intentionally injected malicious code that had users scan a QR code under the guise of security.

  • Chulk@lemmy.ml
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    19 days ago

    Who owns the implementation of this? Is this something that websites opt into and add to their own site? Or is this something that Google injects when you’re clicking a search result on Google?

    • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlOP
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      19 days ago

      Is this something that websites opt into and add to their own site?

      Yes.

      reCAPTCHA is google’s “anti-abuse” service which many websites use to prevent slightly increase the cost of operating automated crawlers (which somewhat ironically google operates one of the largest of itself, for their search engine).

      Before neural networks could solve CAPTCHAs reliably, spammers were solving them with human labor; solving services like anti-captcha.com (intentionally not a clickable link…) today use a mixture of automated and human solvers.

      In the future google is apparently building, solving services will need farms of able-to-run-a-recent-android-release mobile devices with some kind of trusted computing hardware, each one of which they’ll have to use sparingly enough to keep usage of its unique ID under some plausibly-human threshold.

      And even if you do have a phone and are willing to identify yourself with it, if it is too old to run a recent enough Android you also will sometimes be denied services for being unable to pass a robots’ “human” test.

      🤮

    • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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      19 days ago

      This will be used on sites like Experian, Chase, IRS, DMV, etc. It’s a way to track and deanonymize everyone.

  • pwxd@lemmy.zip
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    19 days ago

    Oh boy! Another way to fingerprint your devices! Scammer are sleeping good tonight with these new verifications

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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    19 days ago

    A good way to force the user to use by Google controlled devices and to download Google services for more control by Google. Also a good way that the user show the middle finger to Google, using alternatives.

      • traceur402@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        19 days ago

        Not if this abuse finally succeeds in driving away other peoples’ customers. Captcha losing people money makes captcha go bye bye

        • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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          19 days ago

          i have a feeling normies will begrundingly accept it, and retroactively justify it with some security bullshit google puts out.