{"id":{"repo_id":"utc","oai_identifier":"oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1452"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/utc/oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1452","repository":{"repo_id":"utc","name":"University of Tennessee - Chattanooga","base_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Breaking the multi colored box: a study of CAPTCHA","abstract":"Communication is faster than ever. Innovations in low cost network computing have brought an era in which people can effortlessly and instantaneously view and post opinions collaboratively with others across the world. With such an infrastructure of public message boards, chat rooms and instant messaging systems, there is also a large potential for abuse by people wishing to capitalize on such open services by posting unsolicited advertisements. An entire industry has been constructed around the prevention of unsolicited electronic advertisements (SPAM). This thesis examines various techniques for preventing SPAM, focusing on Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), a challenge/response technique where an image is displayed with text that is heavily distorted. It also examines the feasibility of breaking CAPTCHA programmatically, alternatives to CAPTCHA based on filtering, improvements to CAPTCHA using photo recognition and avoiding the need for CAPTCHA using naïve approaches.","abstract_html":"Communication is faster than ever. Innovations in low cost network computing have brought an era in which people can effortlessly and instantaneously view and post opinions collaboratively with others across the world. With such an infrastructure of public message boards, chat rooms and instant messaging systems, there is also a large potential for abuse by people wishing to capitalize on such open services by posting unsolicited advertisements. An entire industry has been constructed around the prevention of unsolicited electronic advertisements (SPAM). This thesis examines various techniques for preventing SPAM, focusing on Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), a challenge/response technique where an image is displayed with text that is heavily distorted. It also examines the feasibility of breaking CAPTCHA programmatically, alternatives to CAPTCHA based on filtering, improvements to CAPTCHA using photo recognition and avoiding the need for CAPTCHA using naïve approaches.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Khanna, Sumit"],"institution":"University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Harris, Billy","Kizza, Joseph; Thompson, Jack","College of Engineering and Computer Science"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:19Z","subjects":["CAPTCHA (Challenge-response test) -- Evaluation","Internet Security measures"],"languages":["English","eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/312","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Harris, Billy","Kizza, Joseph; Thompson, Jack","College of Engineering and Computer Science"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Khanna, Sumit"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2009-05-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Masters theses","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["CAPTCHA (Challenge-response test) -- Evaluation","Internet Security measures"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/312"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Communication is faster than ever. Innovations in low cost network computing have brought an era in which people can effortlessly and instantaneously view and post opinions collaboratively with others across the world. With such an infrastructure of public message boards, chat rooms and instant messaging systems, there is also a large potential for abuse by people wishing to capitalize on such open services by posting unsolicited advertisements. An entire industry has been constructed around the prevention of unsolicited electronic advertisements (SPAM). This thesis examines various techniques for preventing SPAM, focusing on Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), a challenge/response technique where an image is displayed with text that is heavily distorted. It also examines the feasibility of breaking CAPTCHA programmatically, alternatives to CAPTCHA based on filtering, improvements to CAPTCHA using photo recognition and avoiding the need for CAPTCHA using naïve approaches."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Breaking the multi colored box: a study of CAPTCHA"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Harris, Billy","Kizza, Joseph; Thompson, Jack","College of Engineering and Computer Science"],"dc:creator":["Khanna, Sumit"],"dc:date":["2009-05-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."],"dc:description.abstract":["Communication is faster than ever. Innovations in low cost network computing have brought an era in which people can effortlessly and instantaneously view and post opinions collaboratively with others across the world. With such an infrastructure of public message boards, chat rooms and instant messaging systems, there is also a large potential for abuse by people wishing to capitalize on such open services by posting unsolicited advertisements. An entire industry has been constructed around the prevention of unsolicited electronic advertisements (SPAM). This thesis examines various techniques for preventing SPAM, focusing on Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), a challenge/response technique where an image is displayed with text that is heavily distorted. It also examines the feasibility of breaking CAPTCHA programmatically, alternatives to CAPTCHA based on filtering, improvements to CAPTCHA using photo recognition and avoiding the need for CAPTCHA using naïve approaches."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/312"],"dc:language":["English","eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"],"dc:relation":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"],"dc:rights":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"dc:subject":["CAPTCHA (Challenge-response test) -- Evaluation","Internet Security measures"],"dc:title":["Breaking the multi colored box: a study of CAPTCHA"],"dc:type":["Masters theses","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:19Z"}