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Captcha for CuteNews

The captcha hack for Cutenews is a well-known hack on the internet. Part of it because it works, but mostly because it doesn’t. Atleast, that’s what people think. I myself found myself struggling with the readme file that was included within the download. It’s a very good script, therefor I would like to share my thoughts on this with you so that you can use this script.

What you need:
You need to download the following files:
Captcha.zip (right click > save as)
– shows.inc.php (it’s within you cutenews > inc folder)
– The page where you include the show_news.php on (for example: index.php)

Step 1
Extract the zip file and open up the folder “captcha”. Inside that you’ll find a folder named “captcha” and a readme file.

Open the file “captcha.php” in Notepad or TextEdit (mac os x).

Edit the following line:
$aFonts = array('VeraMoBd.ttf')

And change it to:
$aFonts = array('../captcha/VeraMoBd.ttf')

Because the script is included on the front page, it will search for the .ttf file in the rootdirectory. Therefor you must point it into the right direction by referring to the proper directory.

You must upload the second folder “captcha” (wich holds captcha.php, php-captcha.inc.php and VeraMoBd.ttf). In the readme file it says “upload the captcha folder” and many make the mistake to upload the main captcha folder. After that, none of the paths in the script work!

Step 2
Open up shows.inc.php
Find the following code:

Add below that line:

Find the following code:
$time = time()+($config_date_adjust*60);

//———————————-

// Add The Comment … Go Go GO!

//———————————-

Add above that:
if (!PhpCaptcha::Validate($_POST['code'])) {

echo(”

Please enter the characters from the image.
go back

“);

$CN_HALT = TRUE;

break 1;

}

Find this code:
".insertSmilies('short', FALSE);

Add below that line:
$template_form = str_replace("{captcha}","
Enter this code
Security Image

",$template_form);

Make sure the path WWW.YOURDOMAIN.COM leads to the proper file.

Step 3
Open your document in wich you have (for example):

Add the following line at the top of the page, so meaning above ALL coding that is inside that document:

Example:
My index.php is in the root directory. I uploaded the second directory “captcha” inside the root directory, therefor I can link with captcha/php-captcha.inc.php. If you have your newspage inside a directory called “news” then you have to use “../captcha/php-captcha.inc.php” as the url. The double dots refer to the root directory, and from there it links to the proper directory.

Step 4
– Log in into your cutenews administration area
– Click “Options”
– Click “Edit Templates”
– Click “Add comment form”

After the linebreak that comes right after the textarea you typ:
{captcha}

Step 5
Test it ! Now you should see weird letters and numbers.

Troubleshooting
If something doesn’t work properly first test if the captcha itself does work. Most of the times the script itself works good, but the paths that lead to the script aren’t valid.

Open up http://WWW.YOURDOMAIN.COM/captcha/captcha.php
in your browser. If you get a bunch of errors, then your paths aren’t valid.

Big cause of that is mostly the path that leads to the font file.

Hope this helps, if you find anything misleading, weird or whatever please leave a comment below so I can improve my tutorial.