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“Great Firewall in a Box” – How a massive data leak unveiled China’s censorship export model

AnyFans 2025-09-18

By Mark Gill

Great Firewall in a Box – How a massive data leak unveiled China's censorship export model

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“Great Firewall in a Box” – How a massive data leak unveiled China’s censorship export model

17 September 2025

A 500 GB breach uncovers how China is selling its censorship system to authoritarian regimes

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Image Credit: Geralt / Pixabay
(Image credit: Geralt / Pixabay)

A 500 GB leak reveals China’s “Great Firewall in a box” sold to four countries
The turnkey DPI kit detects and blocks VPN traffic
Citizens face tighter online restrictions, with some VPNs struggling to bypass blocks

A massive data breach has revealed that China is selling the same deep packet inspection (DPI) technology that powers its Great Firewall to four authoritarian regimes.

The September 11, 2025, leak originates from Geedge Networks, a company linked to the development of China’s Great Firewall. More than 100,000 documents – and 500 GB of data – that reveal detailed blueprints of the filtering and DPI technology that powers China’s internet censorship system.
Researchers at the Great Firewall Report have traced the same hardware and software to at least four overseas clients – Ethiopia, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan – all of which have faced waves of political unrest or tightened media controls, making them prime candidates for a turnkey censorship solution.

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Bundled together, they form a turnkey – a complete, ready-to-use product – which researchers at the Great Firewall Report describe as a “Great Firewall in a box.”
Investigators pieced together the export trail by cross-referencing three data sources: cargo manifests, data center footprints, and code annotations.
Citizens face new censorship hurdles as VPNs struggle to bypass blocks

(Image credit: Getty Images)
The arrival of a ready-made Great Firewall kit in countries already known for limited internet freedom changes everyday internet life for millions.
The imported firewall can instantly block a news article, mute a messaging app, or drop a video call, cutting off vital information and severing communication with family and friends.
Constant surveillance erodes privacy and may put citizens, particularly activists, journalists, and whistle-blowers, at risk simply for speaking freely.
Even the most robust virtual private network (VPN) tools struggle against China’s layered defenses, like deep-learning classifiers that can spot obfuscation protocols. The exported DPI engine inspects traffic in real time, recognizes the distinctive handshakes used by many commercial VPNs, and either throttles speeds or blocks the connection outright.
Nevertheless, users in the affected locations can still circumvent restrictions with the best VPNs for China, all of which use advanced VPN obfuscation tactics. Some, such as NordVPN and Proton VPN, have even introduced custom stealth protocols to address this challenge.
It’s a classic game of cat-and-mouse. As censorship grows more sophisticated, VPN developers must continually evolve to stay one step ahead and help citizens access a free internet.
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Tech Security Writer

Mark is a Tech Security Writer for TechRadar and has been published on Comparitech and IGN. He graduated with a degree in English and Journalism from the University of Lincoln and spent several years teaching English as a foreign language in Spain. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal sparked Mark’s interest in online privacy, leading him to write hundreds of articles on VPNs, antivirus software, password managers, and other cybersecurity topics. He recently completed the Google Cybersecurity Certificate, and when he’s not studying for the CompTIA Security+ exam, Mark can be found agonizing over his fantasy football team selections, watching the Detroit Lions, and battling bugs and bots in Helldivers 2.

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