Web Directory Blog

Some of my customers use phpBB3 forum and they started to get automated logins and their forums were hacked and some posts were written. I found interesting webpage about how to use reCaptcha with phpBB3 so i wrote this tutorial. It works with template prosilver and example pictures are also in prosilver.

At first you will need FREE reCAPTCHA PHP plugin /(recaptcha-php-1.10.zip – reCAPTCHA Library for PHP – v1.10), available at Google download reCAPTCHA Library for PHP. After that you will have to get public and private key for use with reCaptcha. Link: http://recaptcha.net/api/getkey

Extract the file ‘recaptchalib.php’ and place it in:
%phpbb_root_path%/includes/captcha

First we must modify code in template file (%phpbb_root_path%/styles/prosilver/template/ucp_register.html)

Locate code <dd>{CONFIRM_IMG}</dd> and delete the following lines of code or comment them out:
<dd><input type=”text” name=”confirm_code” id=”confirm_code” size=”8″
maxlength=”8″ class=”inputbox narrow” title=”{L_CONFIRM_CODE}” /></dd>
<dd>{L_CONFIRM_CODE_EXPLAIN}</dd>

In file %phpbb_root_path%/includes/ucp/ucp_register.php there will be more changes so lets get to it.

Step 1. Place  (add) code require_once($phpbb_root_path . ‘includes/captcha/recaptchalib.’ .
$phpEx); before the line “class ucp_register,” which is almost on top of ucp_register.php file.

If your phpBB is on unix you should use server include_once(… instead of require_once(… (Typo was so friendly to let me know about errors in his log file when using this tutorial – and a solution to this problem).

Step 2. Place code

$publickey = ”;
$privatekey = ”;

$resp = null;
$error = null;

after the line “global $config, $db, $user,
$auth, $template, $phpbb_root_path, $phpEx;”

Step 3. Place code $confirm_id = (isset($_POST['recaptcha_response_field'])); on the line “$confirm_id = request_var(’confirm_id’, ”);“. Simply replace code.

Step 4. Comment out or delete the following line of code ‘confirm_code’  => array(’string’, !$config['enable_confirm'], 5, 8),

Step 5. Go to the section

// Visual Confirmation handling

$wrong_confirm = false;

if (!$confirm_id)
{
$error[] = $user->lang['CONFIRM_CODE_WRONG'];
$wrong_confirm = true;
}
else
{

Delete all code within the first else statement (which has also nested if and else statements within it) and replace with next code:

$resp = recaptcha_check_answer ($privatekey,
$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"],

$_POST["recaptcha_challenge_field"],

$_POST["recaptcha_response_field"]);

if ($resp->is_valid == false) {
$error[] = $user->lang['CONFIRM_CODE_WRONG'];
$wrong_confirm = true; }

Step 6. Comment out or delete everything between the following two
lines of code (including first ans last line (delete approx. 13 linex of php code):

First line of code: $code = gen_rand_string(mt_rand(5, 8));

Last line of code: $db->sql_query($sql);

Step 7. A few lines after the end of Step 6, replace “$confirm_image = ‘<img src=”‘ . append_sid(”{$phpbb_root_path}ucp.$phpEx”, ‘mode=confirm&amp;id=’ . $confirm_id . ‘&amp;type=’ . CONFIRM_REG . $str) . ‘” alt=”" title=”" />’;“with the following line of code: $confirm_image = recaptcha_get_html($publickey, $error);

Step 8. Upload both changed files in appropriate folder over ftp on your web server and don’t forget to flush cache in Administration panel of forum for templates – else it won’t work – something like: Templates – Themes – Refresh action.