Via V2EX (Chinese, registration required) and China Digital Times (Chinese), news of a Chinese web browser called Kuniao browser (酷鸟浏览器 or Cool Bird browser) that advertises the ability to access sites that are blocked by the GFW.
The strange thing about this is that normally, Chinese circumvention products cannot advertise themselves so overtly. I gather that there is suspicion that this browser may be more like a monitoring tool to see what circumventing users are doing. I have not tried running it myself, but the China Digital Times article says that it asks for a mobile phone number, and an invitation code that you have to get from someone else. I heard a report that while the browser does in fact grant access to certain blocked sites such as Google and Twitter, but more sensitive sites like those related to Falun Gong are still blocked.
It would be interesting to know how it works technically—is it actually using circumvention tech, or does it just have a few IP addresses excepted from the GFW? Does it show the correct TLS certificate when you access a web site, or is there evidence of MITM?
I've downloaded and archived the binary (version 10.8.1000.11 dated 2019-10-28) just in case it disappears:
https://archive.org/details/kuniao-browser-10.8.1000.11
Archive of the home page:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114233309/https://ie.kuniao.com/
I haven't tried running it, but here is some metadata about the installer executable. 福建紫讯信息科技有限公司 is "Fujian Zixun Information Technology Co., Ltd." 酷鸟浏览器 is "Cool Bird browser".
$ TZ=UTC exiftool kuniao_browser.exe
ExifTool Version Number : 11.16
File Name : kuniao_browser.exe
File Size : 53 MB
File Type : Win32 EXE
File Type Extension : exe
MIME Type : application/octet-stream
Machine Type : Intel 386 or later, and compatibles
Time Stamp : 2019:10:28 04:02:26+00:00
Image File Characteristics : Executable, Large address aware, 32-bit
PE Type : PE32
Linker Version : 14.11
Code Size : 7168
Initialized Data Size : 55208960
Uninitialized Data Size : 0
Entry Point : 0x1000
OS Version : 5.1
Image Version : 0.0
Subsystem Version : 5.1
Subsystem : Windows GUI
File Version Number : 10.8.1000.11
Product Version Number : 10.8.1000.11
File Flags Mask : 0x0017
File Flags : (none)
File OS : Win32
Object File Type : Executable application
File Subtype : 0
Language Code : English (U.S.)
Character Set : Unicode
Company Name : 福建紫讯信息科技有限公司
File Description : 酷鸟浏览器
File Version : 10.8.1000.11
Internal Name : mini_installer
Legal Copyright :
Product Name : 酷鸟浏览器
Product Version : 10.8.1000.11
Company Short Name : 紫讯
Product Short Name : 酷鸟浏览器
Last Change : f6dd7f3af8d7f361e8095a2f1913fb56598e56cb
Official Build : 0
$ TZ=UTC rabin2 -IV kuniao_browser.exe
arch x86
baddr 0x400000
binsz 55233688
bintype pe
bits 32
canary false
retguard false
sanitiz false
class PE32
cmp.csum 0x034add06
compiled Mon Oct 28 04:02:26 2019
crypto false
dbg_file F:\se10\src\out\Release\mini_installer.exe.pdb
endian little
havecode true
hdr.csum 0x034add06
guid 6C896F3BC08545A6918BFB6A4D74707A1
laddr 0x0
linenum false
lsyms false
machine i386
maxopsz 16
minopsz 1
nx true
os windows
overlay true
pcalign 0
pic true
relocs false
signed true
static false
stripped true
subsys Windows GUI
va true
=== VS_VERSIONINFO ===
# VS_FIXEDFILEINFO
Signature: 0xfeef04bd
StrucVersion: 0x10000
FileVersion: 10.8.1000.11
ProductVersion: 10.8.1000.11
FileFlagsMask: 0x17
FileFlags: 0x0
FileOS: 0x4
FileType: 0x1
FileSubType: 0x0
# StringTable
CompanyName: 福建紫讯信息科技有限公司
FileDescription: 酷鸟浏览器
FileVersion: 10.8.1000.11
InternalName: mini_installer
LegalCopyright:
ProductName: 酷鸟浏览器
ProductVersion: 10.8.1000.11
CompanyShortName: 紫讯
ProductShortName: 酷鸟浏览器
LastChange: f6dd7f3af8d7f361e8095a2f1913fb56598e56cb
Official Build: 0
Via V2EX (Chinese, registration required) and China Digital Times (Chinese), news of a Chinese web browser called Kuniao browser (酷鸟浏览器 or Cool Bird browser) that advertises the ability to access sites that are blocked by the GFW.
The strange thing about this is that normally, Chinese circumvention products cannot advertise themselves so overtly. I gather that there is suspicion that this browser may be more like a monitoring tool to see what circumventing users are doing. I have not tried running it myself, but the China Digital Times article says that it asks for a mobile phone number, and an invitation code that you have to get from someone else. I heard a report that while the browser does in fact grant access to certain blocked sites such as Google and Twitter, but more sensitive sites like those related to Falun Gong are still blocked.
It would be interesting to know how it works technically—is it actually using circumvention tech, or does it just have a few IP addresses excepted from the GFW? Does it show the correct TLS certificate when you access a web site, or is there evidence of MITM?
I've downloaded and archived the binary (version 10.8.1000.11 dated 2019-10-28) just in case it disappears:
https://archive.org/details/kuniao-browser-10.8.1000.11
Archive of the home page:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191114233309/https://ie.kuniao.com/
I haven't tried running it, but here is some metadata about the installer executable. 福建紫讯信息科技有限公司 is "Fujian Zixun Information Technology Co., Ltd." 酷鸟浏览器 is "Cool Bird browser".