How to validate Google reCAPTCHA v3 on server side?

Question

I've just set up the new google recaptcha with checkbox, it's working fine on front end, however I don't know how to handle it on server side using PHP. I've tried to use the old code below but the form is sent even if the captcha is not valid.

require_once('recaptchalib.php');
$privatekey = "my key";
$resp = recaptcha_check_answer ($privatekey,
        $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"],
        $_POST["recaptcha_challenge_field"],
        $_POST["recaptcha_response_field"]);

if (!$resp->is_valid) {
 $errCapt='<p style="color:#D6012C ">The CAPTCHA Code wasnot entered correctly.</p>';}

Answer 1

Private key safety

While the answers here are definately working, they are using a GET request, which exposes your private key (even though https is used). On Google Developers the specified method is POST.

For a little bit more detail: https://stackoverflow.com/a/323286/1680919

Verification via POST

function isValid() 
{
    try {

        $url = 'https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify';
        $data = ['secret'   => '[YOUR SECRET KEY]',
                 'response' => $_POST['g-recaptcha-response'],
                 'remoteip' => $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']];
                 
        $options = [
            'http' => [
                'header'  => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
                'method'  => 'POST',
                'content' => http_build_query($data) 
            ]
        ];
    
        $context  = stream_context_create($options);
        $result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
        return json_decode($result)->success;
    }
    catch (Exception $e) {
        return null;
    }
}

Array Syntax: I use the "new" array syntax ( [ and ] instead of array(..) ). If your php version does not support this yet, you will have to edit those 3 array definitions accordingly (see comment).

Return Values: This function returns true if the user is valid, false if not, and null if an error occured. You can use it for example simply by writing if (isValid()) { ... }