A study by three researchers from the Computer Science and Engineering Division of The University of Michigan presents conclusions that the Green Dam-Youth Escort censorship software that China mandates has serious vulnerabilities that will allow its host computer to be easily controlled by a third party.

The Chinese government has passed a mandate that all computers sold in China after July 1 should have the Green Dam software pre-installed as part of a slew of anti-pornography motions that the government is strictly enforcing. The software is capable of controlling the web and Internet activity of the host computer, effectively blocking and restricting the user from accessing certain sites, or performing certain actions online.

The study proceeds to establish that the software has two major vulnerabilties, namely in the way it filters web content, and in the way it updates itself over the web. The study states that both vulnerabilities are big enough for a hacker or third party to exploit and gain complete control over the host computer.

Software patches have reportedly been authored for Green Dam, but the report also nullifies these, introducing more security vulnerabilities.

The study concludes by stating that the mandate to install Green Dam on all of China’s computers will significantly weaken its computer security, and that the best countermeasure for this is to uninstall Green Dam completely.

via Analysis of the Green Dam Censorship System