Why it matters: Earlier this week, someone released a program that is supposed to help cryptominers bypass the mining limits Nvidia installed on its recent graphics cards. It seemed dangerous at first, but now it seems like it was all a malicious scam.
When Wccftech’s Hassan Mujtaba investigated the Nvidia RTX Light Hash Rate (LHR) v2 BIOS unlock this week, it turned out to be full of malware. Videocardz notes that the malware connects to a remote server. Also, the program’s Github page is now gone.
Last year, Nvidia began shipping its new Ampere graphics cards with an LHR, which limits their ability to mine Ethereum, hopefully reducing their appeal to miners and making it easier for gamers to offer.
Earlier this week, Github user “Sergey” advertised the unlock as a tool to bypass the LHR by modifying the BIOS, something manufacturers already don’t recommend doing. Not only that, but it supposedly only worked correctly with a special driver, which users had to obtain from private servers.
Update: All links to the Github Assets download page have been removed as this tool is apparently infused with malware and we urge everyone to avoid downloading or using it in any capacity that is.
Video: https://t.co/iYi96jyRv0 https://t.co/VzoG9CqHaW
—Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) February 23, 2022
It was advertised as compatible with any Ampere card, including RTX 3000 series gaming GPUs and Nvidia’s RTX workstation cards. TomsHardware reports that the unlocker does not scope the hash rate but instead infects PowerShell.
Even if Nvidia’s LHR promises proved too good to be true, the LHR likely had a limited effect on the market as GPU prices remained massively inflated throughout 2021. However, prices are starting to rise. drop now, signaling a change of wind for Ethereum mining.
Image credit: Diego3336 (CC BY 2.0)