This cybercrime group claims it can help hackers beat CAPTCHA locks

Cybersecurity experts have reported discovering an threat actor selling CAPTCHA-solving services to its customers.

Arkose Cyber Threat Intelligence Research (ACTIR) says the Greasy Opal group is allegedly based in the Czech Republic and has, in the past decade and a half, sold all kinds of software, both legitimate and illegal. However, it drew the attention of the researchers with the CAPTCHA-solving tool.

CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. It's a type of challenge-response test used to determine whether the user is human or a bot. CAPTCHAs are designed to prevent automated software (bots) from doing things like creating accounts, sending email , accessing secure websites, and similar. If you opened at least one website in the last half a decade, you probably saw a CAPTCHA. It is usually a grid of up to nine images, in which the user is asked to select a few similar ones. There are different variants, though.

"Notably fast"

According to ACTIR, Greasy Opal’s tool is a “notably easy, fast, and flexible tool for the automatic recognition of a wide array of CAPTCHAs.”

“Greasy Opal positions its service as enhancing recognition velocity significantly (up to 10 times faster) and is therefore a replacement for competitive CAPTCHA-solving solutions,” such as AntiGate, RuCaptcha, or DeCaptcher, the researchers said.

The tools Greasy Opal offers are apparently bundled, and cost $70 to acquire. Furthermore, there is an additional $10 monthly subscription. Finally, those with deeper pockets can shell out an additional $100 to upgrade to the beta version and get the latest bells and whistles.

A bundle that includes all of Greasy Opal’s tools costs $190, with the additional $10 subscription fee. The researchers believe Greasy Opal raked in at least $1.7 million last year.

Via Infosecurity Magazine

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