captcha.go (view raw)
1// Package captcha implements generation and verification of image and audio
2// CAPTCHAs.
3//
4// A captcha solution is the sequence of digits 0-9 with the defined length.
5// There are two captcha representations: image and audio.
6//
7// An image representation is a PNG-encoded image with the solution printed on
8// it in such a way that makes it hard for computers to solve it using OCR.
9//
10// An audio representation is a WAVE-encoded (8 kHz unsigned 8-bit) sound
11// with the spoken solution (currently in English). To make it hard for
12// computers to solve audio captcha, the voice that pronounces numbers has
13// random speed and pitch, and there is a randomly generated background noise
14// mixed into the sound.
15//
16// This package doesn't require external files or libraries to generate captcha
17// representations; it is self-contained.
18//
19// To make captchas one-time, the package includes a memory storage that stores
20// captcha ids, their solutions, and expiration time. Used captchas are removed
21// from the store immediately after calling Verify or VerifyString, while
22// unused captchas (user loaded a page with captcha, but didn't submit the
23// form) are collected automatically after the predefined expiration time.
24// Developers can also provide custom store (for example, which saves captcha
25// ids and solutions in database) by implementing Store interface and
26// registering the object with SetCustomStore.
27//
28// Captchas are created by calling New, which returns the captcha id. Their
29// representations, though, are created on-the-fly by calling WriteImage or
30// WriteAudio functions. Created representations are not stored anywhere, so
31// subsequent calls to these functions with the same id will write the same
32// captcha solution, but with a different random representation. Reload
33// function will create a new different solution for the provided captcha,
34// allowing users to "reload" captcha if they can't solve the displayed one
35// without reloading the whole page. Verify and VerifyString are used to
36// verify that the given solution is the right one for the given captcha id.
37//
38// Server provides an http.Handler which can serve image and audio
39// representations of captchas automatically from the URL. It can also be used
40// to reload captchas. Refer to Server function documentation for details, or
41// take a look at the example in "example" subdirectory.
42package captcha
43
44import (
45 "bytes"
46 "io"
47 "os"
48)
49
50const (
51 // Default number of digits in captcha solution.
52 DefaultLen = 6
53 // The number of captchas created that triggers garbage collection used
54 // by default store.
55 CollectNum = 100
56 // Expiration time of captchas used by default store.
57 Expiration = 10 * 60 // 10 minutes
58)
59
60var (
61 ErrNotFound = os.NewError("captcha with the given id not found")
62 // globalStore is a shared storage for captchas, generated by New function.
63 globalStore = NewMemoryStore(CollectNum, Expiration)
64)
65
66// SetCustomStore sets custom storage for captchas, replacing the default
67// memory store. This function must be called before generating any captchas.
68func SetCustomStore(s Store) {
69 globalStore = s
70}
71
72// New creates a new captcha with the standard length, saves it in the internal
73// storage and returns its id.
74func New() string {
75 return NewLen(DefaultLen)
76}
77
78// NewLen is just like New, but accepts length of a captcha solution as the
79// argument.
80func NewLen(length int) (id string) {
81 id = randomId()
82 globalStore.Set(id, RandomDigits(length))
83 return
84}
85
86// Reload generates and remembers new digits for the given captcha id. This
87// function returns false if there is no captcha with the given id.
88//
89// After calling this function, the image or audio presented to a user must be
90// refreshed to show the new captcha representation (WriteImage and WriteAudio
91// will write the new one).
92func Reload(id string) bool {
93 old := globalStore.Get(id, false)
94 if old == nil {
95 return false
96 }
97 globalStore.Set(id, RandomDigits(len(old)))
98 return true
99}
100
101// WriteImage writes PNG-encoded image representation of the captcha with the
102// given id. The image will have the given width and height.
103func WriteImage(w io.Writer, id string, width, height int) os.Error {
104 d := globalStore.Get(id, false)
105 if d == nil {
106 return ErrNotFound
107 }
108 _, err := NewImage(d, width, height).WriteTo(w)
109 return err
110}
111
112// WriteAudio writes WAV-encoded audio representation of the captcha with the
113// given id.
114func WriteAudio(w io.Writer, id string) os.Error {
115 d := globalStore.Get(id, false)
116 if d == nil {
117 return ErrNotFound
118 }
119 _, err := NewAudio(d).WriteTo(w)
120 return err
121}
122
123// Verify returns true if the given digits are the ones that were used to
124// create the given captcha id.
125//
126// The function deletes the captcha with the given id from the internal
127// storage, so that the same captcha can't be verified anymore.
128func Verify(id string, digits []byte) bool {
129 if digits == nil || len(digits) == 0 {
130 return false
131 }
132 reald := globalStore.Get(id, true)
133 if reald == nil {
134 return false
135 }
136 return bytes.Equal(digits, reald)
137}
138
139// VerifyString is like Verify, but accepts a string of digits. It removes
140// spaces and commas from the string, but any other characters, apart from
141// digits and listed above, will cause the function to return false.
142func VerifyString(id string, digits string) bool {
143 if digits == "" {
144 return false
145 }
146 ns := make([]byte, len(digits))
147 for i := range ns {
148 d := digits[i]
149 switch {
150 case '0' <= d && d <= '9':
151 ns[i] = d - '0'
152 case d == ' ' || d == ',':
153 // ignore
154 default:
155 return false
156 }
157 }
158 return Verify(id, ns)
159}