Hacker group demands US$1 million for its LHR cryptomining bypass tool for Nvidia RTX GPUs

The hashrate limiter which is used in Nvidia's RTX 30-series of graphics cards continues to be a nuisance for cryptominers around the world. However, shortly after a highly anticipated LHR unlocker unfortunately turned out to be a malware scam, another hacker group now claims that it has successfully bypassed the hashrate limitations of hamstrung GeForce RTX LHR GPUs. 

The South American collective named Lapsus$ previously made headlines when Nvidia launched its own counterattack after the hackers allegedly managed to steal 1TB of confidential data from the GPU manufacturer in a ransomware attack. According to a new report by Tom's Hardware, Lapsus$ has now put a hefty US$1 million price tag on its coveted LHR bypass tool which was apparently developed in conjunction with the stolen internal data from Nvidia. Until today, the hacker group only asserted that it would eventually provide access to the software and firmware which supposedly unlocks the full cryptomining hashrate performance of affected graphics cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 LHR.

Lapsus$ further threatens to "release the complete silicon, graphics, and computer chipset files for all recent NVIDIA GPUs, including the RTX 3090 Ti and upcoming revisions" should the California-based company not commit to open-sourcing its graphics drivers on all major platforms. It remains to be seen whether or not Ethereum-based cryptominers are wiling to pay the the steep price for this latest but unproven LHR unlocking software, and if Nvidia will indeed react to the menacing ultimatum by the end of the week.

Get the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 XC3 Ultra Gaming LHR on Amazon