MediaWiki extensions manual

SpecialPageCaptcha Release status: stableCategory:Stable extensions
Implementation	Page action Category:Page action extensions, Special page Category:Special page extensions
Description	Forces anonymous users to complete a CAPTCHA challenge if they try to access a Special: page of any kind
Author(s)	Jack Phoenixtalk
Latest version	0.2
Compatibility policy	For every MediaWiki release that is a Long Term Support release there is a corresponding branch in the extension.Category:Extensions with long-term support release branches compatibility policy
MediaWiki	1.43+Category:Extensions with manual MediaWiki version
License	Public domain
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Browse repository (GitHub) Gerrit code review Git commit log Download source tarball Category:Extensions in Wikimedia version control
Parameters $wgSpecialPageCaptchaCookieTTL * $wgSpcialPageCaptchaWhitelist
Hooks used SpecialPageBeforeExecute Category:SpecialPageBeforeExecute extensions
Translate the SpecialPageCaptcha extension if it is available at translatewiki.net

The SpecialPageCaptcha extension forces anonymous users to complete a CAPTCHA challenge if they try to access a Special: page of any kind. Upon successful completion of the CAPTCHA challenge, a cookie will be set for the amount of time specified in $wgSpecialPageCaptchaCookieTTL (by default this is half an hour) so that the user can browse special pages freely without being subjected to the CAPTCHA again for a limited time.

ConfirmEdit is a pre-requisite for this extension, as this extension will use ConfirmEdit's engine to generate the CAPTCHA.

This extension was written by Jack Phoenix after a suggestion on Uncyclopedia.

Installation

• Download and move the extracted SpecialPageCaptcha folder to your extensions/ directory.
  Developers and code contributors should install the extension from Git instead, using:

  cd extensions/
  git clone https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/mediawiki/extensions/SpecialPageCaptcha
  

• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'SpecialPageCaptcha' );
  

• Configure if you wish.
• Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

$wgSpecialPageCaptchaCookieTTL

The time to live (TTL) in seconds for the cookie set by the extension, which allows the (anonymous) user to bypass the CAPTCHA. The default is 1800 (seconds), i.e. 60 seconds * 30 minutes. Set this to a higher value if you want users to have to go through the CAPTCHA only every X hours or days.

$wgSpecialPageCaptchaWhitelist

A whitelist of special pages which will never show the CAPTCHA. By default this contains four pages: Captcha, Search, Userlogin, Userlogout.
Special:Captcha is provided by the ConfirmEdit extension and it's the help page about CAPTCHAs, whereas the search, log in/log out pages are provided by MediaWiki core and their inclusion in this list oughta be self-explanatory. (Special:Search needs to not prompt for a CAPTCHA for search suggestions to function as intended; it'd be silly if clicking on a search suggestion to go to the suggested page resulted in being shown a CAPTCHA.)

See also

• Extension:CrawlerProtection — an extension which uses the same hook as this one does to flat-out deny access to certain expensive special pages, as well as some views like the page history view and diff view
• Extension:DisableSpecialPages — allows a system administrator to disable access to certain special pages, i.e. to make them so as if such a special page doesn't exist on the wiki