Captcha instead of "too many activation attempts"

[Don Coyote]

Hello. I play a lot of indie games and I purchase a lot of game bundles such as humble bundle, indie gala and indie royal.
So needless to say that I always see this "too many activation attempts" message because I have some games already, and steam will for some reason register that as unsuccessful activation.
Now I have to wait forever before I can continue activating games.
I understand why this system exists. It's so that bots can't just go through every letter and number and register whatever game comes up.
But you need to fix this problem and find a better solution, because I for one am sick and tired of it.
So how about implementing captcha instead?
Or how about type in your password every 10th unsuccessful code?
Second thought. That'd actually work better than captcha, because the captcha system doesn't work for blind people.
But this is really something that needs to be fixed.

[Don Coyote]

@Mirek "You really should stop doing stuff like that".
Stop doing what? I'm not following you.
If you're referring to what I said about the time freeze thing, then no I don't. Just because I know how to, doesn't mean i am.
All I did was suggest that the security should be better.
Or are you referring to giveaway keys from other people? Not sure how that's a security risk, but thanks for the tip.

[4D 69 72 65 6B]

Originally posted by Don Coyote:

Or are you referring to giveaway keys from other people? Not sure how that's a security risk, but thanks for the tip.

Easy explained: I give you a key, that you activate on your account. About a month later I request, that my (actually your account) account was hacked and I got a key to recover it.

You got a scanned paper with the key...I got the key on the original manual / dvd box....who do you think will get access to this account?

Happened many times, where people talked about hacked accounts...actually they have just used that kind of keys.

That is why steam warns people about getting scammed through 3rd party sites. So be careful with that kind of giveaways/deals.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Don Coyote:

Yea I see that. It's just frustrating.
So the best solution would be having 10 per hour and Password + "Are you a robot" or something per activation after those 10.
Because bots can still bypass that time limit by freezing or resetting the time using Cheat Engine or similar. You can also use Linux and install the Windows version of Steam via PlayOnLinux and freeze the time from regedit in that particular Wine bottle.
You know.
So if bots really is the reason behind the 15 per hour limit, they should really consider updating that security.

As it is based on Steams server, not the local client, a bot can't stop anything. The server prevents the activation and keeps track of the time.

There is no way for a bot to bypass the restriction.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

CAPTCHA has been broken a long time ago by bot makers. they tried CAPTCHAs here a little while back and within a week they removed them because thats how fast bots were reprogrammed to bypass it. Only the humans had issues with it.

Exactly, CAPTCHAs are completely useless, the humans struggle more then the bots do. There are some that are near impossible.

[Don Coyote]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

There is no way for a bot to bypass the restriction.

So then what is the point of having that "too many attempts" limit implemented if bots ain't the problem?

[Don Coyote]

@Mirek, So you're saying that giveaways on sites like reddit and steamcompanion are unsafe?
Hmm. Not sure if a lot of people are aware of that. Sounds like a loophole for hackers.

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by Don Coyote:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

There is no way for a bot to bypass the restriction.

So then what is the point of having that "too many attempts" limit implemented if bots ain't the problem?

Totoro never said anything about bots not being the issue. Totoro said that bots can't bypass the restrictions that are in place. A hacker can't edit memory to freeze time to get past stuff because its all done server side on steams servers.

The current anti-bot method of limiting the number of tries each our works fine. Humans bump up against it sometimes, but thats usually rare and only happens a few times. Its only the greedy ones that keep bumping up against it.

Just remember that what ever method is used to allow a human to type something in to bypass the limit the bots will very quickly be able to do, usually within hours of it being implemented.

So yes bots are the issue.

[GameMaster_Luna]

Why doesn't steam just add a captcha to lower the amount of time you have to wait to re-enter the code?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Calvin:

Why doesn't steam just add a captcha to lower the amount of time you have to wait to re-enter the code?

As has been said time and again, because bots can bypass captcha, making it pointless.

Originally posted by Don Coyote:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

There is no way for a bot to bypass the restriction.

So then what is the point of having that "too many attempts" limit implemented if bots ain't the problem?

If you are going to intentionally miss-read what others have posted, then this thread is done.