Internet users looking to access restricted websites in China may find themselves looking at more than they bargained for.
Greatfire is reporting that China’s DNS poisoning system, which forbids Chinese internet users from accessing websites banned in China like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, has received an upgrade. No longer do you just see a message saying the request has timed out. Now it’s much more interesting.
One of Greatfire’s users reports being sent to a government website in Korea when trying to access Greatfire.org. Another was sent to a Russian website when trying to access Facebook, and yet another said he was sent to a German porn site when trying to access a webpage for a VPN provider.
Greatfire says this effectively results in a DDoS attack against foreign websites. The site points out the upgrade disables many anti-DNS poisoning tools:
Chinese internet users have grown accustomed to websites timing out – and many make the connection with censorship. Maybe the authorities think that, after a transition period, internet users will become accustomed to the new model of DNS poisoning as they have with websites timing out. We do not anticipate that Chinese netizens will react negatively to this change as many are already familiar with such tactics.
We can tell you The Nanfang has experienced similar issues online. When previously trying to access this site, we were redirected to the website seen in the screenshot above, one associated with the Australia Electoral Commission. Now during preparation for this post, the same request now sent us here.
Screenshot: AEC