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Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

arstechnica.com

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Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#351

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

I find three components of this very interesting:

They’re requesting an LHR unlock over a ransom, surely you could get $100m out of nvidia with this stuff, how many 3 series cards do you need for LHR to be more equitable, especially when everyone gets the unlock. Maybe it’s about reputation?

The fact that they’re ransoming data instead of crypto locking isn’t something I’ve seen before. It’s inevitable once targets start backing up, but interesting it’s the first move they made.

The fact that they changed their ransom to include open sourcing drivers. This surely reduces reputation, and makes them look amateur. IANAL but blackmail coercion surely invalidates any otherwise legally binding obligations, right?

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#352

Post by michaelt »

pbasista wrote: post #246
Blammar wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can suggest a good reason why the Nvidia GPU drivers are opaque binary blobs. Generally speaking, you don't build a multi-billion transistor chip, and manage to ship the A01 spin without doing some magic. The Nvidia GPU i/o interface is a remarkable mechanism where the resource manager (the code that sits at the very lowest level) can patch the hardware interface to get around hardware issues and give the appearanc…

I do not understand your argument. You suggest that there are work-arounds in the drivers. And then you imply that people do not want to see them. First of all, I am unsure if people not willing to see the work-arounds is generally true to begin with. But more importantly, if someone does not want to see something, they can simply not look. I do not understand how that is meant to justify these drivers being binary b…

The argument is "It's embarrassing"

Outsiders are irrelevant - if something makes you feel embarrassed, it's embarrassing.

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#353

Post by i67vw3 »

nisegami wrote: post #279
schappim wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? I saw a good use for this week when journalists used it to purchase a car in war torn Ukraine.

Got a link to that? Cryptocurrencies seem to me to be a poor choice in a situation where there might be issues with infrastructure like the electrical grid or internet connectivity.

Afaik, you send bitcoin by radio waves from a transmitter.

To run that transmitter, you will need electricity. The electricity can be made in such situations via a generator/inverter by burning diesel.

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#354

Post by danaris »

oarsinsync wrote: post #296
Mindwipe wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see why it's attractive when the alternative is no card at all.

Short term thinking can often appear to be attractive in the short term. It's the long term implications that get you, and by then it's too late.

Allowing/supporting crypto mining is short-term thinking.

It's a bunch of wealthy people burning absurd amounts of fossil fuels solely for the purpose of making themselves wealthier. There is no benefit to society from allowing this.

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#355

Post by avianes »

mjg59 wrote: post #208

There are two scenarios where carrying out their threat plausibly helps the open source community: 1) A source drop demonstrates that Nvidia incorporated GPLed code into their drivers. This is, honestly, unlikely - Nvidia has sufficiently competent lawyers to ensure that everyone they employ is extremely aware of what the consequences of that would be 2) The source drop includes the private keys used to sign Nvidia G…

If NVIDIA's firmware's signature private keys are in a standard file instead of being in a HSM (Hardware Security Module), as all serious companies do, then NVIDIA can only blame themselves.

I seriously doubt that firmware's signature private keys are in hacker's hands.

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#356

Post by washadjeffmad »

avianes wrote: post #185

Not sure if hackers understand that NVIDIA is not necessarily the only victim if they leak the hardware. This hardware folder potentially contains IPs from other companies and the standard cell library from TSMC

It's an advertisement. Imagine the offers they must be getting from crypto cartels. Even if Nvidia commits to open source, there's no guarantee nothing will get sold off elsewhere, just not in the big public way that will momentarily tank NVDA then probably make it skyrocket just as the chip supply returns another great crypto rush on GPUs begins, if it already hasn't.

It's exceptionally good timing for some, isn't it?

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#357

Post by jmclnx »

mrtksn wrote: post #73
modeless wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No single piece of software has wasted more of my time than Nvidia's drivers, mostly (though not exclusively) on Linux. They've rendered my OS unbootable so many times over the years. So many times I've spent whole days of my life troubleshooting, upgrading, downgrading, configuring, rebooting. Then often reinstalling the OS after their installers mess stuff up in ways that are impossible to even know until they pop…

Oh, tell me about it. +Installs Linux, this time determined to make it daily driver. Why is this so slow though? - You need to install Nvidia drivers + Oh, OK makes sense. -- INSTALLS NVIDIA DRIVERS -- -- LINUX NO LONGER BOOTS, OBSCURE ERROR MESSAGE, FURIOUSLY GOOGLING ON A TINY PHONE SCREEN TRYING TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE -- Later made myself a Hackintosh, eventually bought an actual Mac. The Hackintosh stuff was much,…

> It's sad to hear that graphics drivers are still not a solved problem on Linux.

This is not a Linux (or BSD) problem but purely a Nvidia Issue. After my last issue with an embedded Nvidia GPU in my motherboard (~10 years ago), I stay far away from Nvidia, I will never but anything remotely associated with Nvidia until they Open Source their drivers. I knew someone who worked there as an engineer and told him that, he just smiled with me knowing I knew it is really beyond his control.

This is 2022, we should be well beyond the point of worrying about Video Hardware in Linux/BSD.

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#358

Post by i67vw3 »

squarefoot wrote: post #4

I would rather outlaw cryptocurrencies for being a harm for the planet with their crazy energy demands, besides also fueling criminals.

Could you tell your daily routine? I would like to calculate your carbon footprint and compare with mine to see whose is higher. By it, we can figure if you or me (an average cryptocurrency user) is harming the planet more.

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#359

Post by danaris »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #344
SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #335

A bit off-topic, but the fact that criminals asked for help mining, instead of money or crypto-money, just gave me an epiphany: The whole internet is showing the first signs of a digital Resource Curse [1] brought by crypto mining. Crypto mining changed the economics of the digital world in such a drastic way that it is poisoning all kinds of internet interactions. It is not just about disrupting how money used to wo…

I'm sure many people would agree with your diagnosis. What's the treatment, though?

Ban crypto mining. Outlaw exchanging cryptocurrencies (directly) to USD (and other fiat currencies, but USD is the big one for now).

Re: Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever

#360

Post by keymon-o »

SkyBelow wrote: post #326
keymon-o wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah there. I don’t like the crypto culture and mindset as the next guy, but there are plenty of other options to preventing use case you presented. If systems aren’t closed enough already… And as far as the gaming goes, I cannot see how playing games is more noble usage of gpu than crypto mining.

I've noticed a lot of directed outrage as a result of people unable to find a MSRP graphics card that I would almost treat as funny if it wasn't so scary to see how the internet culture changes. I can't speak to the motivations of grandparent or other single individuals, but I have noticed in other communities a lot of moral arguments being used very selectively that reminds me of my sociology class on the origin of…

I think I get what you are saying, but I think it’s less of a social problem, and more of a resource scarcity problem that humanity isn’t used to solving.

As much as people are aware of resources being limited on our planet, rarely anybody actively thinks that it’s already becoming a reality, yet it seems like extreme addiction to technology has only just started.

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