According to VideoCardz, hackers from the Lbbabo.netSU$ group said that among they stole from NVIDIA were drivers, circuits, firmware, and even the algorithm for the hash rate limiting system of NVIDIA RTX 30 video cards. They have already begun to distribute some of this data in open sources.
Lbbabo.netSU$ explained that they had access to NVIDIA's internal servers on a closed network for about a week and were able to gain administrative access to many of the company's systems. In addition, the group claims that, despite the efforts of the NVIDIA security specialists, they were able to download many critical and confidential data. Now they have begun to slowly post driver sources, files with electrical circuits and video card wiring, various files with factory firmware, internal development tools, SDKs in closed forums.
Also in the leak was an algorithm for bypassing the mining limiter for cards with a halved Ethereum hashrate for GA102 and GA104 chips of NVIDIA solutions based on the Ampere architecture. The hackers are going to sell this data or put it in the public domain. They also want NVIDIA to release new drivers for the RTX 30 itself, where the hash limiter will be removed.
Earlier media reported that NVIDIA is investigating and analyzing the scope and consequences of a cyber attack, including using a ransomware virus, on some of its systems. The incident happened at the end of February. Currently, work within the company is carried out as usual. NVIDIA cybersecurity specialists did not disclose whether attackers gained access to classified information or to customer and partner data during the intrusion into the company's network.
According to unconfirmed reports, Lbbabo.netSU$ hackers hacked NVIDIA's internal network and copied more than 1 TB of the company's critical data. NVIDIA tried to hack and encrypt the copied sensitive data to prevent its distribution. She almost managed to do it, but backup helped the hackers. After that, the hackers start spreading parts of the leak in the closed community. For example, they have published the source code for the NVIDIA drivers.
In early February 2021, Nvidia announced the release of specialized CMP (Crypto-mining processor) mining cards, as well as a hardware halving of the Ethereum hash rate on the GeForce RTX 3060. The company later clarified that the anti-mining feature of the RTX 3060 does not work at the driver level, but in vBIOS, and may appear on other cards.
In March 2021, users discovered that the anti-mining feature of the RTX 3060 was not working with the 470.05 driver. Nvidia has called the release of this driver an accidental bug.
In May, Nvidia announced that it would limit the ability to mine Ethereum on updated versions of the GeForce RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 Ti graphics cards. Cards with a reduced hash rate will be labeled “Lite Hash Rate” or “LHR” on the packaging. The manufacturer expects these graphics adapters to be less desirable for miners.
In early June, Nvidia lowered the hash rate in the RTX 3080 Ti not only for Ethereum, but also for other crypto coins - Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ergo and Ravencoin (RVN). So the company is trying to ward off the interest of miners in its video cards.
In August 2021, an updated version of the NBMiner application received a partial ability to bypass the Ethereum hashrate limits on Nvidia video cards: the result increased to 70% instead of the previous 50%.
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