Tuesday, March 1st 2022

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

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
Add your own comment

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

#26
phanbuey
Hackers, having no leverage and negotiating a company that doesn't want to set precedent of negotiating with hackers, demand things...

Sounds like an insta-nope, but let's see.
Posted on Reply
#27
Steevo
kapone32That is why this smells of a rogue Government operation.
A rogue government is interested in Nvidia tech, that’s a possibility cause so far they have only talked about GPUs and not much beyond what is indirectly accessible through most public channels if people cared to look. But the real interesting stuff might be AI and HPC, but doubtful with the open source approach most have taken to it all.

Sounds more like some butthurt peeps who can’t get their GPU on like most of us, Nvidia isn’t directly to blame for Samsung and Intel nodes sucking hind teat.

Or some in house devs tired of spending time writing obfuscation code for Nvidia sponsored titles to make it run poorly on competitors hardware, anyone need a recap of rendered water or concrete barriers? Hairworkx, or other Physx BS? Not that AMD hasn’t played their hand well, but Ngreedia can suck a bag for their antics while winning a bit on performance and take the trophy.
Posted on Reply
#28
R-T-B
CallandorWoTare you saying AMD has better security than Nvidia?
Their web-facing infrastructure aparently does, based on the evidence thus far.

Why AMD in particular though? Intel qualifies too. Anyone who has avoided a hack like this does.
Robin SeinaThere 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.
Yes, the firmware blobs, but that is standard practice and nearly nothing. It's not even generally called part of the driver.
Posted on Reply
#29
Space Lynx
Astronaut
R-T-BTheir web-facing infrastructure aparently does, based on the evidence thus far.

Why AMD in particular though? Intel qualifies too. Anyone who has avoided a hack like this does.


Yes, the firmware blobs, but that is standard practice and nearly nothing. It's not even generally called part of the driver.
having read like 5 years of damn near bi-monthly security breaches in Intel chips, I am surprised you had the balls to say this. lol (yes I am exaggerating a little bit, but not much lol)
Posted on Reply
#30
R-T-B
CallandorWoThaving read like 5 years of damn near bi-monthly security breaches in Intel chips
I'm not commenting on hardware here. Just security practices on web facing infrastructure. They are entirely seperate animals.

Hackers are much like predators in nature, they take down the fattest and the lamest. The proof is in the record there.
Posted on Reply
#31
Space Lynx
Astronaut
R-T-BI'm not commenting on hardware here. Just security practices on web facing infrastructure.
I have no idea about that kind of stuff, you are way more advanced than me mate. you are starting to speak another language now, so I will see myself out lol I am a simple man
Posted on Reply
#32
R-T-B
CallandorWoTI have no idea about that kind of stuff, you are way more advanced than me mate. you are starting to speak another language now, so I will see myself out lol I am a simple man
Don't worry, I stopped philosophy about around when I learned about Jeremy Bentham, so I'm sure you outclass me there quite a bit. ;)
Posted on Reply
#33
noel_fs
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 are dumb
Posted on Reply
#34
Legacy-ZA
Chris34Maybe somebody will decide to rewrite the control panel.
Wouldn't that be great, geeze, the Nvidia control panel needs a major overhaul. Big time.
Posted on Reply
#35
Shihab
Chris34Maybe somebody will decide to rewrite the control panel.
Why do people hate it?
I personally like its current no-nonsense form. It's nice to still have a piece of first-party software that isn't a venting space for some graphic designer trying to convince themselves that their jobs are necessary.

Performance could use some work, though...
noel_fsyou are dumb
Be nice!
Posted on Reply
#36
Soul_
Since everyone has been making fun of these hackers, last few days they have tried to garner support from miners and gamers, and now the linux community. They are just looking for notoriety at this point. They know nVidia is not paying up, so saving their name is on the line now.
Posted on Reply
#37
Prime2515102
ShihabyoooWhy do people hate it?
I personally like its current no-nonsense form. It's nice to still have a piece of first-party software that isn't a venting space for some graphic designer trying to convince themselves that their jobs are necessary.
I have to agree with this. If I had my way everything would be written in machine code like Steve Gibson does it.
Posted on Reply
#38
windwhirl
Soul_Since everyone has been making fun of these hackers, last few days they have tried to garner support from miners and gamers, and now the linux community. They are just looking for notoriety at this point. They know nVidia is not paying up, so saving their name is on the line now.
I wonder. They hacked Nvidia, they got away with a treasure trove of data. That doesn't sound like a small feat.

Saving their name? Nah, this whole thing granted them recognition. It's just a matter of whether that's worth anything in the blackhat world, IMO
Posted on Reply
#39
ThrashZone
Hi,
Might be nvidia sponsored hackers
Push back from MS insisting getting drivers from the ms store lol

Maybe realtek will follow :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#40
Lew Zealand
CallandorWoTto my knowledge AMD drivers are not open source either on WIndows, only on Linux...

so why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
Nvidia is the 8th largest company in the world by market cap. Yup, our lil' GPU maker is all growed up!
Posted on Reply
#41
bailtree
this is excellent new for linux, well done hackers!!!!
Posted on Reply
#42
daemon7
CallandorWoTto my knowledge AMD drivers are not open source either on WIndows, only on Linux...

so why they only target Nvidia I wonder, weird.
probably simply because the opportunity presented itself.
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
Dec 19th, 2024 00:54 EST change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts