Ethereum miners receive malware while trying to bypass Nvidia’s lock

Several cryptocurrency miners downloaded a tool on GitHub that promised to disable a geosher of GeForce RTX 30 graphics cards. This lock is included by Nvidia itself in the components to prevent the use of GPUs made for ethereum mining games. Little did users know that such a “miracle solution” was actually a malware package.
The feature known as “Nvidia RTX LHR v2 Unlocker” has emerged as an alleged way to increase the ethereum mining potential of the RTX 30 series video cards. The tool’s promise was to remove Nvidia’s Lite Hash Rate (LHR) software, which halves the hash rate of the component.

In short, the hash rate — or hashrate — defines the computational power of machines and hardware components dedicated to cryptoasset mining. The higher the rate, the faster complex mathematical calculations will be performed during ethereum generation, for example.

Due to the promise to disable Nvidia LHR, the program attracted the attention not only of miners, but also from sites specialized in technology, who began to disclose the tool. However, no one had any idea that the feature was a bomb full of malicious software.

In a livestream on RedPanda Mining on YouTube, two members of the cryptocurrency mining community known as ChumpchangeXD and Y3TI showed analysis of the tool on the VirusTotal website. Among the 18 threats found were malware responsible for changing the operation of the PC, increasing processor usage and even spying on installed drivers.

As soon as the malicious software was discovered, the creators of the tool removed the project from GitHub. While the page was working, the description explained that the feature would be able to modify the BIOS and drivers of the RTX 30 series video cards by removing the GPU hash rate limiter during ethereum mining.

Miners are running out of resources
Since nvidia included the Lite Hash Rate on RTX 30 cards in mid-2021, demand for RTX 20 series GPUs has grown a lot. Because there are few units available on the market, ethereum miners try to find ways to increase their earnings, even using more modern but limited GPUs.

For this reason, the launch of a tool to unlock the RTX 30 video cards looked very promising. However, the pot’s sit-down ended up hurting several people.