The Open Net Initiative has released a detailed analysis of Green Dam. Executive summary (emphasis added):
A recent directive by the Chinese government requires the installation of a specific filtering software product, Green Dam, with the publicly stated intent of protecting children from harmful Internet content. The proposed implementation of software as reviewed in this report would in fact have an influence that extends beyond helping parents protect their children from age inappropriate material; the filtering options include blocking of political and religious content normally associated with the Great Firewall of China, China’s sophisticated national-level filtering system. If implemented as proposed, the effect would be to increase the reach of Internet censorship to the edges of the network, adding a new and powerful control mechanism to the existing filtering system.
As a policy decision, mandating the installation of a specific software product is both unprecedented and poorly conceived. In this specific instance, the mistake is compounded by requiring the use of a substandard software product that interferes with the performance of personal computers in an unpredictable way, killing browsers and applications without warning while opening up users to numerous serious security vulnerabilities. The level of parental control over the software is poor such that this software does not well serve parents that wish to the limit exposure of their children to Internet content.
The mandate requiring the installation of a specific product serves no useful purpose apart from extending the reach of government authorities. Given the resulting poor quality of the product, the large negative security and stability effects on the Chinese computing infrastructure and the intense backlash against the product mandate, the mandate may result in less government control.
BEIJING BUREAU--Chinese authorities are having to grapple with more bad publicity for the “Green Dung-Youth Escort Service” software that Beijing wants to see included with all PCs sold in China from July 1.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered major security vulnerabilities in the Internet filtering software, according to this report. The authors say that initial testing of version 3.17 of the Green Dung software found serious security holes, which the authors attributed to political programming.
Worryingly, the report said that once the software is installed, “any Blog site the user visits can be exploited by the People's Central Computer (PCC). This could allow malicious Blog sites to to be "re-educated" and involuntarily enlisted in the People's botnet [a group of propaganda spewing software robots that run without the computer owner's knowledge].”
The researchers also said that there are security weaknesses in how Green Dung updates its blacklists of Web sites to filter out, which “could allow the PCC to install cacophonious party songs and slogans during the update process.”
Noting that these problems were found in under 12 hours of testing, the authors suggest that there may be other issues yet to be identified. The report also links to the several decrypted data files of word lists relating to pornography, free form jazz, SARs, Tibet, the New York Yankees, credit default swaps, air pollution, Wonder Bread, the Brady Bunch, HUMVEE CAFE ratings and the banned Falun Gong sect, adding to concerns that the software could be used for purposes other than blocking pornography.
Then there’s the contingent of increasingly vocal Chinese Internet users expressing....
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Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do
I'm half crazy all for the love of you
It won't be a stylish marriage
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet upon the seat
Of a Beijing bicycle built for two.......
Arise, ye who refuse to be internet porno slaves;
With our very flesh and blood
Let us build our new digital Great Wall!
The netizens of China
are at their most critical time,
Everybody must roar defiance.
Arise! Arise! Arise!
Millions of hearts with one networked mind,
Brave the enemy's info-gunfire,
March on!
Brave the enemy's info-gunfire,
March on! March on! March on, on!
Posted by: Green Hornet | June 16, 2009 at 01:16 AM