Tuesday, March 1st 2022

NVIDIA Data-breach: Hackers Demand GeForce Drivers be Made Open-Source

by
btarunr
 Discuss (42 Comments)
The latest episode in the saga of the cyberattacks on NVIDIA servers that unleashed the motherlode of confidential information, the group behind the hack made its second set of demands. The first one was for a ransom to prevent public-disclosure, which NVIDIA possibly didn't meet. The second one is a demand for making GeForce proprietary drivers open-source on all platforms. Failing this, the group plans to release its next chunk of the leak public.

This, the group claims, includes sensitive files related to the company's silicon design, including Verilog (.v) files, and VG files. They also claim to be in possession of files related to upcoming hardware, including the elusive RTX 3090 Ti, and upcoming revisions of existing silicon. The group sets until 4th March (Friday) to meet its demand.
Source: VideoCardz

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42 Comments on NVIDIA Data-breach: Hackers Demand GeForce Drivers be Made Open-Source

#1
wheresmycar
This is madness.. or is it?

Pardon my ignorance, what is "open-source" in these circumstances and does this benefit the ordinary user?
Posted on Reply
#2
rcl98
wheresmycarThis is madness.. or is it?

Pardon my ignorance, what is "open-source" in these circumstances and does this benefit the ordinary user?
remember those A series card? I think you can enable RTX A6000 feature on RTX 3090 which is much cheaper
Posted on Reply
#3
Space Lynx
Astronaut
to my knowledge AMD drivers are not open source either on WIndows, only on Linux...

so why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
Posted on Reply
#4
R-T-B
Open source drivers basically means we can write our own drivers with whatever features we want.

You could do things like turn on bogusly-segregated features like Integer scaling (Only Turing and above? Come on) on any product, or many things like that.
CallandorWoTso why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
Probably because they successfully breached them, I would reckon.
Posted on Reply
#5
wahdangun
CallandorWoTto my knowledge AMD drivers are not open source either on WIndows, only on Linux...

so why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
but nvdia driver for linux still not open source
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#6
Unregistered
CallandorWoTso why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
Because they couldn't buy a reasonably priced rtx3080ti to play LOL and are sore about it.
#7
Space Lynx
Astronaut
R-T-BOpen source drivers basically means we can write our own drivers with whatever features we want.

You could do things like turn on bogusly-segregated features like Integer scaling (Only Turing and above? Come on) on any product, or many things like that.


Probably because they successfully breached them, I would reckon.
are you saying AMD has better security than Nvidia?

hey AMD, time to reach out to those healthcare companies that Nvidia reached out to, LOL i wonder who will win those contracts now....
Posted on Reply
#8
Mescalamba
Well, why not. Computing power is dictated by card alone anyway.
Posted on Reply
#9
Fouquin
Demanding open-source drivers for macOS is like asking the stewardess to have the plane turned around. NV has no control over delivering drivers for macOS, only Apple does.
Posted on Reply
#10
zlobby
CallandorWoTto my knowledge AMD drivers are not open source either on WIndows, only on Linux...

so why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
Ghee, really! Why didn't they target AMD? Oh, I know - it's because AMD didn't implement half-assed security measures.

Nvidia are really far up theirs.
Posted on Reply
#12
kapone32
Bruno_Oshit is getting serious
This is only the beginning.
Posted on Reply
#13
Divide Overflow
Open source?
That's not something nVidia is prepared to do.
Posted on Reply
#14
zlobby
MescalambaWell, why not. Computing power is dictated by card alone anyway.
That's the absolute limit. In reality you can't reach same performance due to software overhead.
Posted on Reply
#15
kapone32
FouquinDemanding open-source drivers for macOS is like asking the stewardess to have the plane turned around. NV has no control over delivering drivers for macOS, only Apple does.
That is why this smells of a rogue Government operation.
Posted on Reply
#16
windwhirl
CallandorWoTare you saying AMD has better security than Nvidia?
zlobbyGhee, really! Why didn't they target AMD? Oh, I know - it's because AMD didn't implement half-assed security measures.
We don't know which company has better security measures, and to be fair, I don't recall AMD cutting down features/performance through drivers, which is what Nvidia did.
Posted on Reply
#17
zlobby
windwhirlWe don't know which company has better security measures, and to be fair, I don't recall AMD cutting down features/performance through drivers, which is what Nvidia did.
I'm pretty sure hackers had and continue to probe AMD as well. For all we know only nvidia was breached as of now.
Posted on Reply
#18
Chris34
Maybe somebody will decide to rewrite the control panel.
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#19
Mescalamba
Chris34Maybe somebody will decide to rewrite the control panel.
Lol, yes please.
Posted on Reply
#20
Athena
This is pretty dumb, trying to blackmail them?

Open source drivers can't be used on windows, they aren't signed, so that is moot.

On Linux, that is a different story, and they really should open source the drivers, instead of the binary blobs they have now.

Both AMD & Intel have open sourced drivers (with some binary blobs parts.

Overall, a big fat meh.
Posted on Reply
#21
Jism
I'm more interested in the Telemetry practices they perform on both professional and consumer drivers.
Posted on Reply
#22
Space Lynx
Astronaut
JismI'm more interested in the Telemetry practices they perform on both professional and consumer drivers.
no need to be interested in it, they are licking bbq sauce off those telemetry chicken wings like its no ones business. best to just give up and accept our fate as a failed species as I have done. LOL jk mate, fkin hell i crack myself up sometimes
Posted on Reply
#23
mechtech
This so they can optimize mining? lol
Posted on Reply
#24
claes
FouquinDemanding open-source drivers for macOS is like asking the stewardess to have the plane turned around. NV has no control over delivering drivers for macOS, only Apple does.
Is this true? From what I recall nvidia was upset that their contract ended and decided to stop development unilaterally. Maybe I’m wrong?
Posted on Reply
#25
Robin Seina
CallandorWoTto my knowledge AMD drivers are not open source either on WIndows, only on Linux...

so why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
Not even on Linux. There are some parts of driver that are opensource, but there is also another blackboxed part, that remains proprietary since AMD says due to legal requirements (probably pantent sharing ones) not all parts of code can be made open source.
AthenaThis is pretty dumb, trying to blackmail them?

Open source drivers can't be used on windows, they aren't signed, so that is moot.

On Linux, that is a different story, and they really should open source the drivers, instead of the binary blobs they have now.

Both AMD & Intel have open sourced drivers (with some binary blobs parts.

Overall, a big fat meh.
You can force in unsigned driver in windows, but you have to install it manually from ini files
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