CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jqueryformsspam
Jared Eitnier
Jared Eitnier

Reputation: 7152

Preventing spam submission via form using a hidden field

My boss hates captcha's and well, so do I even if they work. She instead suggests using a hidden field so that if it is filled out [by robots] that the form should not be submitted. Are there downsides to this method?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4561

Answers (2)

Hmmmmm
Hmmmmm

Reputation: 870

The method you described is typically referred to as a honeypot. While some sites have had success with them in the past your results will vary depending on the value of spamming your site. Also, with honeypots getting more widespread adoption spammers are using smarter pieces of software that can circumvent these types of traps. I suggest you take a look at this proof-of-work service that will allow you to use better bot fighting techniques that are still invisible to your users. That said, for things that have serious security implications (e.g. forgot password) I strongly recommend you use a CAPTCHA.

Upvotes: 3

AvL
AvL

Reputation: 3093

You could trick any robot by exchanging the functions of the submit-button and the cancel-button:

$('form').submit(function(e){
    e.preventDefault();
    // remove user values
});
$('button').click(function(e){
    e.preventDefault();
    var data = $('form').serializeArray();
    data['human'] = true; // hidden value
    $.post('example.com', data);
});

Upvotes: 0

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