Recently, we faced a problem that tested our team’s innovation: keeping a client's online forms safe from spam while ensuring they remained fully functional for legitimate users.
Our client had already implemented Google's reCAPTCHA v3, which provides a robust defense against spam bots. However, they wanted to further enhance security, reducing the chances of their forms being hijacked by spammers while maintaining a seamless user experience. This presented a familiar but tricky problem: adding security measures without introducing unnecessary friction for real users.
The Unique Solution: Using a 'Honeypot' Technique
After considering various solutions, we found that a tried-and-true technique known as the "honeypot" was ideal for this situation. For those unfamiliar with the term, "honeypot" has its origins in espionage and other domains where it describes something that lures and traps prey—just like flies to honey. In the world of web development, a honeypot serves a similar purpose, acting as a decoy that attracts malicious bots while remaining invisible to human users.
In the context of form security, a honeypot field is hidden from real users but detectable by bots, which are designed to fill in every form field they encounter. If this hidden field contains a value when the form is submitted, it’s flagged as invalid, preventing the submission from going through. Essentially, the honeypot traps malicious bots that are too eager to fill in every field, leaving legitimate users unaffected—at least, in theory.
The Challenge: Balancing Security and Usability
While the honeypot technique was successful in stopping spammers, we soon realized that many well-intentioned tools—like browser auto-complete features or password managers such as LastPass—were unintentionally filling in these hidden fields. This led to legitimate users experiencing form submission failures. Our goal was not just to block bots, but to ensure a smooth experience for human users, so we needed to find a way to make the honeypot invisible to helpful tools as well.
Lessons Learned: Finessing the Honeypot
Through rigorous testing, we identified that browser auto-complete and plugins were the primary culprits in filling the honeypot field. Fixing this issue involved a multi-layered approach:
- Non-Standard Field Names: One strategy was to give the honeypot field random or non-standard names, reducing the chances of these tools recognizing them as important fields to fill.
- Custom Attributes: We added attributes to the honeypot field that instruct browser tools and plugins to ignore them. These include attributes like autocomplete="off", which helps prevent auto-fill tools from interacting with the field.
- Dynamic Fields: In some cases, we dynamically generated form fields with unpredictable names or field values, making it harder for bots to identify which fields to fill while also preventing legitimate auto-fill tools from misbehaving.
These strategies each had varying degrees of success, but combining them gave us the results we needed. The honeypot technique remained effective in blocking spam bots, and legitimate users, including those relying on auto-fill tools, were able to submit forms without disruption.
Conclusion: Innovation Meets Usability
At Visus LLC, we pride ourselves on providing innovative solutions that balance security with user experience. By using a honeypot technique—and refining it to accommodate modern browser behaviors—we not only secured our client’s forms from spam but also ensured that their real users could complete the forms with ease.
This experience reinforced an important lesson: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to security challenges. A successful outcome often involves creativity, patience, and an iterative process. We’re proud to have delivered a solution that addressed the client’s needs while keeping usability top of mind.
If you’re facing a similar challenge or looking to improve your website’s security, let’s connect. At Visus LLC, we’re here to solve your unique challenges with the same commitment to quality, security, and user experience that we bring to every project.