python requests bypass captcha

Python Requests Bypass Captcha

If you have ever tried to scrape a website, you must have come across Captchas at some point. Captchas are used to prevent automated bots from accessing a website. They are designed to be difficult for machines to solve but easy for humans. However, there are times when you need to bypass Captchas in your web scraping project. In this article, I will show you how to bypass Captchas using Python Requests library.

Method 1: Using OCR

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It is a technology that recognizes text within images. In this method, we will use OCR to solve the Captcha image.

First, we need to install the pytesseract library, which is a Python wrapper for Google's OCR engine Tesseract. We can install it using pip:

    pip install pytesseract

Once installed, we need to download the language data files for Tesseract. We can do this by running the following command:

    sudo apt-get install tesseract-ocr

We also need to install the Pillow library, which is a fork of the Python Imaging Library (PIL) and adds support for opening, manipulating, and saving many different image file formats. We can install it using pip:

    pip install Pillow

Now that we have installed the necessary libraries, we can write the code to solve the Captcha image using OCR:

    import requests
    import pytesseract
    from PIL import Image
    
    # Download the Captcha image
    response = requests.get("http://example.com/captcha.png")
    with open("captcha.png", "wb") as f:
        f.write(response.content)
    
    # Open the Captcha image and solve it using OCR
    img = Image.open("captcha.png")
    captcha = pytesseract.image_to_string(img)
    
    # Submit the form with the solved Captcha
    data = {
        "username": "myusername",
        "password": "mypassword",
        "captcha": captcha
    }
    response = requests.post("http://example.com/login", data=data)

In this code, we download the Captcha image and save it to a file named "captcha.png". We then open the image and solve it using OCR. Finally, we submit the form with the solved Captcha.

Method 2: Using a Captcha Solving Service

Another way to bypass Captchas is to use a Captcha solving service. There are many third-party services available that can solve Captchas for you. Some popular ones include 2Captcha, Death By Captcha, and Anti-Captcha.

To use a Captcha solving service, you need to sign up for an account and obtain an API key. You can then send the Captcha image to the service using an HTTP request, and the service will return the solved Captcha. You can then submit the form with the solved Captcha.

    import requests
    
    # Download the Captcha image
    response = requests.get("http://example.com/captcha.png")
    with open("captcha.png", "wb") as f:
        f.write(response.content)
    
    # Send the Captcha image to the Captcha solving service
    response = requests.post("http://api.captchasolutions.com/solve", data={
        "key": "your_api_key",
        "file": open("captcha.png", "rb")
    })
    captcha = response.json()["text"]
    
    # Submit the form with the solved Captcha
    data = {
        "username": "myusername",
        "password": "mypassword",
        "captcha": captcha
    }
    response = requests.post("http://example.com/login", data=data)

In this code, we download the Captcha image and save it to a file named "captcha.png". We then send the image to the Captcha solving service using an HTTP request, and the service returns the solved Captcha. Finally, we submit the form with the solved Captcha.

Conclusion

In this article, we have seen two ways to bypass Captchas using Python Requests library. The first method used OCR to solve the Captcha image, while the second method used a third-party Captcha solving service. While both methods are effective, using a Captcha solving service can be more reliable and accurate, but it also incurs additional cost.