Introduction
Occasionaly we all encounter some CAPTCHA we want to circumvent. I remember the time when I built a small OCR script to fight some free SMS service captcha, so I could use it for my system notifications. It was a long time ago, captcha used was relatively simple (plain text with some small markings). Since then, captchas became more difficult.
The OCR thing still helps, but not for widely used ReCaptcha. Using Chrome extension to automaticaly tick “I’m not a robot” including proxies, works, but depending on the scale of the project that might not be enough. Switching image reCaptcha to audio and using some AudioToText recognition tool/plugin worked for a while, but that’s far from ideal. Success rate vary and it’s slow. In comes the XEvil 4 (Re)Captcha Solver.
This article is not Sponsored by XEvil.
XEvil 4 – (Re) Captcha Solver
Recently we’ve encountered a project in which we need to solve 10k reCaptchas per day. In our research we’ve noticed XEvil 4. A tool we didn’t have in our radar. At first we were suspicious. Free or Lite version (70$) doesn’t support reCaptcha, and Standard license is “not cheap” (240$, now 170$). When compared to “solverecaptcha.com” monthly prices, this one-time payment doesn’t seem much. After a while, after we tried everything else (Breaking the google reCaptcha, custom solutions, manual labor services like anti-captcha, etc.), we decided to try it out.
There were a number of problems. Certain Windows VPS providers have some issues with XEvil. After starting the tool, we were unable to login/authenticate with BotMastersLabs main server. Not 100% sure if it’s due to some port related issue or due to XEvil mistake. After a few XEvil updates and a different VPS provider, everything started working.
Next problem was hardware requirements. Initially in the docu we’ve seen something like: “The program is maximum optimized so it does not use much of PC resources”. So, we’ve started with small VPS servers (4GB RAM with 2vCPU), but the performance was terrible. Trying 6 cores with 20GB didn’t help much either. Ultimately we tried 8-10 cores + 60GB, and that finally did the trick. Later on we’ve noticed “Attention” part: “For stable usage of software (XEvil) it’s recommended to run on multiprocessor servers with 32GB RAM or more”. As always, we really like to figure things like this on our own 🙂
It consist of two parts, XRumer (something like a base) and XEvil (captcha).
XEvil basically mimics the APIs from other captcha solving services: AntiGate/Anti-Captcha (v1, v2), De-Captcher, RipCaptcha, RuCaptcha, 2Captcha, DeathByCaptcha,…
That came in useful since we already had an API to work with anti-captcha for designated website. Transitioning to XEvil was relatively easy.
XEvil 4 Performance
When compared to other methods, xEvil has average to great performance. For example, “anti-captcha” solving speed is somewhere between 30 and 60 seconds. With 25 threads, 36 reCaptchas are getting solved in 3-4 min. XEvil is somewhat slower. XEvil ReCaptcha success rate was improved in recent updates. With the previously mentioned hardware specs we managed to run 25-30 threads without significant issues. Although we’re using a great proxy provider with huge IP pool, we still experienced proxy bans (as seen on the SS below).
In our tests, with the current proxy provider, less than 15% of the requests end up as banned. That issue is yet to be explored. Speed vary, but on average, 25 threads solves 36 reCaptchas somewhere between 4 and 6 min. If we take 5 min as average, that’s 8.3 sec for 1 recaptcha => 10400 reCaptchas per day (our goal). We’ll probably need to increase thread number and utilize 2nd license by adding another server (you get 2 with standard package) to get stable resolving rate.
We didn’t explore other features, but with the standard license you’re getting:
- XRumer – Multi-functional tool for promotion in different ways on Internet. Post your links and ads on more than 400k resources (forums, blogs, social networks..)
- XEvil – ReCaptcha solver
- HRefer – Search engine parser, which helps webmaster to collect links
- SocPlugin – Submitting on FB, VK, Odnoklassniki, mamba
Bellow is a quick overview of supported captchas and success rate (2017).
Conclusion
Depending on what you need and compared to some manual labor services, XEvil might be a better option in the long run. You decide for yourself.
With “anti-captcha” price goes between $2-$3 per 1k reCaptchas, so 300k reCaptchas per month would cost ~$750. While doing tests there, we had some issues with bidding price/unavailable slots and wrongly solved captchas. Solving speed is somewhere between 30-60 seconds. On the other hand you can purchase XEvil for $170/$240. Aside from that, you’ll have a monthly costs for windows server(s) of at least $70-$80 and a good proxy provider with as many IPs in proxy pool as possible would probably go for $250-$500. Solving speed is similar, mostly 30-60 seconds, but depending on the situation (proxy delay, difficulty,..) it can be somewhat higher.
