Hackers demanding million-dollar prize for leaked Nvidia GPU mining bypass
The hackers driving the Nvidia cyberattack have slapped a $1million price tag tag on an alleged cryptomining limiter tool.
Between the terabyte of sensitive info stolen from the computing giant by LAPSUS$ was information that could enable some Ethereum miners double their efficiency.
Ethereum, the world’s next-largest blockchain community, operates on the Evidence-of-Get the job done notion, the very same as Bitcoin. In layman’s terms, that means to get hold of the Ether currency, one particular desires to “mine”, or have a laptop do some cryptographic significant lifting. That is why state-of-the-artwork GPU units, these types of as the ones Nvidia has on present, have been offering out like outrageous, as they supply the greatest ROI.
A lot more Nvidia woes
To discourage Bitcoin miners from swallowing up all of the offer, and to let other buyers to get a chance of acquiring one particular of the more recent models, Nvidia was forced to limit the hash rate on their equipment, in essence producing it unprofitable for miners to go for these GPUs.
Allegedly, the RTX 3000 GPU can only perform with some 50% capacity, for Ethereum mining.
Now, LAPSUS$ says that it has crafted a software that can bypass Nvidia’s Lite Hash Level limiter with no “flashing” or updating the firmware on the gadget.
“Without flashing = significant income for any miner developer,” the group stated before this 7 days.
Even so there is additional than one rationale why any one taking into consideration obtaining this resource must feel two times. Initially, there’s no assurance that it actually operates, as LAPSUS$ did not provide a evidence of concept, or demo, to clearly show the resource in exercise.
Next, it could very properly be a rip-off, or a way to distribute malware. It wouldn’t be the initial time people today claimed to have cracked the hash level limiter, only to be uncovered as frauds.
Third, the Ethereum network is phasing out Evidence-of-Operate and shifting toward Proof-of-Stake, which would wholly eradicate the will need for any mining on endpoints, and hence, the want for any GPUs.
Even though it is really hard to identify the timeframe of the migration, it does raise the question of the profitability of getting the instrument for $1 million.
By means of: Pc Magazine