crrodriguez:
Hi:

There is a massive bug in the included recaptcha plugin

The problem is in /includes/captcha/plugins/phpbb_recaptcha_plugin.php
function recaptcha_check_answer

it says:

if (trim($answers[0]) === 'true')

{ $this->solved = true; return false; }
else
{
if ($answers[1] === 'incorrect-captcha-sol') { return $user->lang['RECAPTCHA_INCORRECT']; }
}


The important part is when the code checks $answers[1] , that's awfully broken, it must NOT check the returning error string but the returning error code

This makes captcha easily bypassable by a text browser/bot, as they do not support javascript, and when captcha is not resolved the challenge response defaults to "manual_challenge", there is no point in checking the error string, you only want $answers[0] being true, every other return value regardless its contents must return incorrect captcha.


fix:

if (trim($answers[0]) === 'true'){ $this->solved = true; return false; }

else

{ return $user->lang['RECAPTCHA_INCORRECT']; }