Hackers who stole data from Nvidia's servers want the company to remove Lite Hash Rate from their GPUs

(Image Courtesy: Nvidia)

A group called Lapsus$ had managed to breach Nvidia's security to make off with up to 1 TB of official data from the servers. This included firmware, source code for drivers and design schematics.

The ransomware group has already posted some of the files online. This includes source code for the company's marquee feature DLSS 2.2 with related assets, C++ files, and a programming guide. It also includes usernames and password hashes for nearly 71,000 people employed by the company.

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Lapsus$ has demanded that Nvidia remove a feature known as Lite Hash Rate or LHR from all 30 series GPUs. Lite Hash Rate was introduced in 2021 to combat crypto mining on the cards. The goal was to reduce the demand among the mining community, who were causing a worldwide shortage of Nvidia cards by buying them in bulk.

Lite Hash Rate limits the rate at which cryptocurrency is mined, reducing the efficiency by 50%, deliberately making the cards an inferior choice to mine cryptocurrencies. Lapsus$ has demanded that the company do away with this feature and enable mining at regular speeds on Nvidia's 30-series line of GPUs.

In a note shared by the group's Telegram account (via Ars Technica), Lapsus$ wrote, "We want nvidia to push an update for all 30 series firmware that remove every lhr limitations otherwise we will leak hw folder. If they remove the lhr we will forget about hw folder (it's a big folder). We both know lhr impact mining and gaming."

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If Nvidia does not give in to the demands, Lapsus$ will make source code for all current and future GPU drivers, available online. Alternatively, the group threatened that they would release entire silicon chip files online, leaking all trade secrets.