Google has rolled back a recent release of its reCaptcha captcha script after a bug caused the service to no longer work on Firefox for Windows.
Yesterday, BleepingComputer received multiple reports that reCaptcha stopped working in the latest version of Mozilla Firefox, with the issues also reported on Twitter and Reddit.
BleepingComputer tested reCaptcha on our devices and confirmed that the service no longer worked in Firefox. Instead, the reCaptcha prompt would show an endlessly spinning circle instead of performing the regular captcha routine, as shown below.
Source: BleepingComputer
According to a Mozilla bug report, the issue was related to reCaptcha's dark mode detection routine for Firefox in Windows.
The script attempted to modify a div's background color using document.body.removeChild, but as the script was loaded in the HTML head, the DOM had not loaded yet and document.body was not available, causing the script error.
As a temporary workaround, users could change their browser user agent to one for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, and reCaptcha would work again.
Mozilla Firefox software engineer Dennis Schubert confirmed the bug, stating that Google acknowledged it was an issue in their script rather than the browser and was working on a fix.
"Yes, Google is rolling out a fix. It seems to work in several of our internal tests on multiple continents, but we'll keep this bug open until we're sure it's fixed for everyone," posted Schubert.
An hour later, Google reverted back to an earlier version of the script, fixing the bug for Firefox users.
While some were quick to pin this as being intentional by Google, it appears to be a mistake that was quickly resolved.
Comments
PuppyOnesie - 2 months ago
This makes no sense. I never had any issue with reCAPTCHA in Firefox. I did however have issues with reCAPTCHA in Edge and Chrome when they enabled TLS 1.3 hybridized Kyber support just recently. "As a temporary workaround, users could change their browser user agent to one for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, and reCaptcha would work again." Yeah right, not with hybridized Kyber enabled.
U_Swimf - 1 month ago
Sounds like it's been working for you then. This is Google flexing intentionally saying 'Hey, if yall dont wanna use our browser or products, Good luck with Captchas' since we like it when they arent bugging us. Expect more targetted tests to see what it takes to migrate the remaining Rebels to a Chromium only world.
ThomasMann - 1 month ago
reCAPTCHA is a terrible nuisance, but sadly there is no way for a user like myself to switch it off.
These people do not give a hoot about what is going on, they throw their garbage software at you, and you have no choice but to deal with it!
The picture are of lousy quality so sometimes it is really hard to see if this needs to be clicked or not, but worst is when they are too idiotic to check the correct solution! More often than not, when you have f.e. motorcycles to check and you really click ALL where there is a part of the motorcycle visible, in 9 out of ten cases they will tell you, you are wrong.
I am trying to avoid websites that use it, like userupload, but it is not always possible.
God I have that garbage !!!
(YES, I know this particular thing is a google problem! Google anyway is the only company worse than this one)