NVIDIA Hack Potentially Disastrous
The hacking group Lapsus$ has claimed responsibility for last week's Nvidia data breach, claiming to have discovered a driver that unlocks the limitations prebuilt into their GPUs preventing them from being used for crypto mining.
The group posted messages on its public forum offering a compromised driver for sale, that when implemented is claimed to have the ability to unlock the hash rate limiter on Nvidia’s RTX 3000 GPUs.
“If someone buys us the LHR, we will provide ways to fuck LHR without flashing anything,” the hackers wrote, adding, “Without flashing = big money for any miner developer.”
At the time of writing the group has uploaded a 19GB file that is said to have the source code for Nvidia’s GPU drivers, which they claim "any developer with a good brain" could compile. In addition, the group has demanded that the hash rate limiter be removed from the 3000 series of cards with an update, utilizing the threat of releasing more files containing sensitive information about the company.
Last week during the attack Nvidia encrypted a machine, that was under the control of the Lapsus$ group: the hackers claim that the attack was futile and that “we have all the data."
At the time of the hack, Nvidia released a statement saying, "Our business and commercial activities continue uninterrupted. We are still working to evaluate the nature and scope of the event and don't have any additional information to share at this time."
Originally, Nvidia implemented the hash rate limiter on its graphics cards to make them less desirable to crypto miners and in turn get them into the hands of PC gamers, following shortages caused by crypto miners buying up ridiculous amounts of stock.
Even though Bitcoin miners have moved on to more powerful ASIC miners, designed specifically for crypto mining, GPU miners can still make a profit from mining Ethereum and other proof-of-work cryptos.
While the claims are alarming, if what the Lapsus$ says to have is actually real this could be disastrous for the GPU manufacturer, and a giant win for mining enthusiasts all around the world.