# reCAPTCHA

GitLab leverages [Google's reCAPTCHA](https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html)
to protect against spam and abuse. GitLab displays the CAPTCHA form on the sign-up page
to confirm that a real user, not a bot, is attempting to create an account.

## Configuration

To use reCAPTCHA, first you must create a site and private key.

1. Go to the URL: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin

2. Fill out the form necessary to obtain reCAPTCHA keys.

3. Login to your GitLab server, with administrator credentials.

4. Go to Applications Settings on Admin Area (`admin/application_settings`)

5. Fill all recaptcha fields with keys from previous steps

6. Check the `Enable reCAPTCHA` checkbox

7. Save the configuration.

## Enabling reCAPTCHA for user logins via passwords

By default, reCAPTCHA is only enabled for user registrations. To enable it for
user logins via passwords, the `X-GitLab-Show-Login-Captcha` HTTP header must
be set. For example, in NGINX, this can be done via the `proxy_set_header`
configuration variable:

```
proxy_set_header X-GitLab-Show-Login-Captcha 1;
```

In GitLab Omnibus, this can be configured via `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

```ruby
nginx['proxy_set_headers'] = { 'X-GitLab-Show-Login-Captcha' => 1 }
```