Tor Packages for Red Flag Linux

Jun 12, 2009

Tor packages for the Chinese distro Red Flag are helping users elude censorship in Internet cafes in China.

As we reported a while ago, Internet cafes in the city of Nanchang (and possibly elsewhere) have been told to use Red Flag, even if they have a valid Windows license. This prompted concerns about a possible government backdoor being built into the distribution.

The anonymity project Tor has reacted to the danger by making rpm packages available. In the Tor blog, Phobos writes that although reports of forced Red Flag use remain unconfirmed, some users have requested packages which are now being offered for testing. They are based on version 0.2.1.15-rc and come complete with signatures and binary. The Tor team are asking for feedback from Red Flag users who test the packages.

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