Encrypting CAPTCHA API Traffic: TLS Best Practices

Every CaptchaAI API call carries your API key. If that traffic isn't encrypted, anyone on the network path can read your key and use your balance. CaptchaAI's endpoint (https://ocr.captchaai.com) supports TLS by default — this guide ensures your client is configured correctly and shows how to handle common TLS issues.

Verify Your Connection Is Encrypted

Python

import requests

resp = requests.get("https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php", params={
    "key": "test", "action": "getbalance", "json": "1",
})

# Check the connection used TLS
print(f"URL: {resp.url}")
print(f"Status: {resp.status_code}")
# If this succeeds without error, TLS is working

JavaScript

const axios = require('axios');

async function verifyTLS() {
  try {
    const resp = await axios.get('https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php', {
      params: { key: 'test', action: 'getbalance', json: '1' },
    });
    console.log(`Connected via HTTPS: ${resp.config.url.startsWith('https')}`);
  } catch (e) {
    console.error(`TLS error: ${e.message}`);
  }
}

verifyTLS();

Common TLS Mistakes

Never Disable Certificate Verification

Some developers disable SSL verification to work around certificate errors. This makes your traffic vulnerable to interception:

# DANGEROUS — never do this in production
requests.get(url, verify=False)  # Disables TLS verification

# CORRECT — always verify certificates
requests.get(url, verify=True)   # Default behavior

// DANGEROUS — never do this in production
const agent = new https.Agent({ rejectUnauthorized: false });

// CORRECT — always verify (default)
const agent = new https.Agent({ rejectUnauthorized: true });

Always Use HTTPS URLs

Ensure your code uses https:// not http://:

# WRONG
BASE_URL = "http://ocr.captchaai.com"

# CORRECT
BASE_URL = "https://ocr.captchaai.com"

TLS Configuration Best Practices

Python: Enforce Minimum TLS Version

import requests
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
from urllib3.util.ssl_ import create_urllib3_context
import ssl

class TLSAdapter(HTTPAdapter):
    """Force TLS 1.2 or higher."""
    def init_poolmanager(self, *args, **kwargs):
        ctx = create_urllib3_context()
        ctx.minimum_version = ssl.TLSVersion.TLSv1_2
        kwargs["ssl_context"] = ctx
        return super().init_poolmanager(*args, **kwargs)

session = requests.Session()
session.mount("https://", TLSAdapter())

# All requests through this session use TLS 1.2+
resp = session.get("https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php", params={
    "key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "action": "getbalance", "json": "1",
})

JavaScript: Configure TLS Options

const https = require('https');
const tls = require('tls');
const axios = require('axios');

const agent = new https.Agent({
  keepAlive: true,
  minVersion: 'TLSv1.2',  // Enforce TLS 1.2 minimum
  rejectUnauthorized: true, // Always verify certificates
});

const api = axios.create({
  baseURL: 'https://ocr.captchaai.com',
  httpsAgent: agent,
});

Checking TLS Version

Python: Inspect the Connection

import requests
import urllib3

session = requests.Session()
resp = session.get("https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php", params={
    "key": "test", "action": "getbalance", "json": "1",
})

# Access the underlying connection info
connection = resp.raw._connection
if connection and hasattr(connection, 'sock'):
    ssl_socket = connection.sock
    print(f"TLS version: {ssl_socket.version()}")
    print(f"Cipher: {ssl_socket.cipher()}")

Command Line

# Check TLS support
openssl s_client -connect ocr.captchaai.com:443 -tls1_2

# Check certificate
openssl s_client -connect ocr.captchaai.com:443 -showcerts

Proxy and TLS

When using proxies with CaptchaAI:

# HTTPS proxy — maintains TLS
session.proxies = {
    "https": "https://user:pass@proxy.example.com:8443",
}

# SOCKS5 proxy — tunnels TLS
session.proxies = {
    "https": "socks5://user:pass@proxy.example.com:1080",
}

Troubleshooting

Corporate Proxy / Firewall Issues

If your corporate network intercepts TLS (SSL inspection), you'll see certificate errors. The fix is to add your organization's CA certificate to the trust store:

# Python — use your corporate CA bundle
session.verify = "/path/to/corporate-ca-bundle.crt"

// Node.js — set CA certificates
process.env.NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS = '/path/to/corporate-ca.crt';

FAQ

Does CaptchaAI support TLS 1.3?

Test with openssl s_client -connect ocr.captchaai.com:443 -tls1_3. If the connection succeeds, TLS 1.3 is supported. TLS 1.2 is the minimum recommended version.

Is my API key visible in server logs?

The API key is in the URL query string for GET requests. Server access logs may record it. For additional security, ensure your server logs don't expose query parameters, or use POST requests where supported.

Should I pin CaptchaAI's certificate?

Certificate pinning is not recommended for API clients. It prevents automatic certificate rotation and can cause outages when CaptchaAI renews its certificates.

Related Articles

• Ip Reputation Captcha Solving Best Practices
• Proxy Setup Best Practices
• Image Captcha Base64 Encoding Best Practices

Next Steps

Verify your API traffic is encrypted — get your CaptchaAI API key.

Related guides:

• Data Privacy Guide
• Vault Integration
• Securing Credentials