Security expert: China's Green Dam software is not safe

The Chinese government's plan to force the installation of content-filtering software on all PCs sold in the country could throw open the gates to a massive security breach. Called Green Dam-Youth Escort, the locally developed software has to be installed on all new computers sold in the country since July 1. The same rules apply to PCs that are imported into China

After examining the code earlier this month, Ben Feinstein, director of research at SecureWorks now says that it uses a variety of safe programming practices such as the use of the "Strcpy" function, which is a potential vector for a buffer overflow attack. Feinstein argues that any vulnerability in Green Dam-Youth Escort could well result in the creation of a botnet of unprecedented size in the country. In addition, Feinstein noted that "This software appears to be of low quality and to have not been developed with a secure methodology. It likely suffers from a whole host of problems."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News

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