A tool published on GitHub purported to enable the full Ethereum mining capabilities of newer Nvidia RTX graphics cards, but in fact included malware. Tom’s Hardware and PC Gamer both wrote on an initially promising utility named “Nvidia RTX LHR v2 Unlocker,” which claimed to uninstall Nvidia’s “Lite Hash Rate” software, which was included in newer graphics cards to discourage crypto miners from purchasing gaming GPUs.
Yesterday, during a livestream on the Red Panda Mining channel on YouTube, members of the mining community ChumpchangeXD and Y3TI revealed some less-than-pleasant findings: the tool included many viruses.
Notably, Tom’s Hardware reports that the utility does not even execute its intended job of removing the GPU’s hash rate cap. Rather than that, it appears to infect your system and trigger a slew of other strange behaviours, such as increased CPU utilisation, looking for system discs, and other things that should have raised some red lights – and did. The magazine directs visitors to Joe’s SandBox Cloud, an interesting website that demonstrates how a dangerous programme spreads throughout a system after installation.
Since Nvidia began implementing Lite Hash Rate in graphics cards in mid-2021, there has been a massive demand (and a very profitable secondary market) for older RTX GPUs that do not have a hash rate limit. A mechanism that may reduce demand by eliminating the restriction on newer cards is an alluring proposal.
