Alphabetically sorted user response not used for Lost Character CAPTCHA validation

The Drupal 7 version seems to use the unsorted response for validation? It only works if the characters of the required response happen to be alphabetically in the first place, or if the user enters the required characters alphabetically (rather than in the order missing in the word). It seems the user's unsorted answer (as can be logged) is used to validate, although function lost_character_process() is called and indeed is sorting the response.

When configuring for only one lost character, it always works (when the right character has been entered) as there is nothing to be sorted.