Preventing abuse of services through infrastructure incompatibility

摘要

Spammers, and other abusers of web services, may be deterred in their attempts to sign up for these services at large scale by making changes to the service registration procedure, where the changes are designed to break the spammer's infrastructure. In one example, a procedure to register for a web service involves presenting a Human Interaction Proof (HIP, or “captcha”) to the user, and gating access to the service upon receipt of a correct solution. If spammers use botnets and/or image capture techniques to initiate registration processes and to transport the HIPs to human or automated solvers, then the registration procedure can be changed in a way that is incompatible with capturing these images, or in a way that is incompatible with receiving HIP solutions from someplace other than the location at which registration was initiated.

主权项

1. A method of preventing an abuser from gaining access to a service, the method comprising:
using a processor to perform acts comprising:
identifying a feature of an infrastructure that a spammer uses to register for said service;presenting a registration page that allows a user to register for said service;including, in said registration page, a Human Interaction Proof (HIP) challenge, wherein said HIP challenge comprises an aspect that is incompatible with said feature in that said feature prevents said infrastructure from receiving said HIP challenge;determining that said user has solved said HIP challenge; andbased on said determining, allowing said user to register for said service.