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Backdoor Could Allow Company To Shut Down 70% of All Bitcoin Mining Operations (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "An anonymous security researcher has published details on a vulnerability named "Antbleed," which the author claims is a remote backdoor affecting Bitcoin mining equipment sold by Bitmain, the largest vendor of crypto-currency mining hardware on the market," reports Bleeping Computer. The backdoor code works by reporting mining equipment details to Bitmain servers, who can reply by instructing the customer's equipment to shut down. Supposedly introduced as a crude DRM to control illegal equipment, the company forgot to tell anyone about it, and even ignored a user who reported it last fall. One of the Bitcoin Core developers claims that if such command would ever be sent, it could potentially brick the customer's device for good. Bitmain is today's most popular seller of Bitcoin mining hardware, and its products account for 70% of the entire Bitcoin mining market. If someone hijack's the domain where this backdoor reports, he could be in the position to shut down Bitcoin mining operations all over the world, which are nothing more than the computations that verify Bitcoin transactions, effectively shutting down the entire Bitcoin ecosystem. Fortunately, there's a way to mitigate the backdoor's actions using local hosts files.
A company based on Bitcoin isn't operating according to the highest standards?
Wow. I'm definitely making a note in my diary about this unique and surprising turn of events.
APK!
Still think the distributed blockchain is a good idea?
My imaginary money is at risk!!!
a very little bit
If ONLY there was a host file expert here to tell us if this were true!
If you haven't got a billion dollars, you can't blather on about colonising Mars. How admirably crytocurrency fills its niche as a poor man's wild west. It's got everything. A Chinese Boss Hogg with a Fu Machu mustache can suddenly jump out of the woodwork at any moment. Hot damn!
I was never much of an Oregon Trail dreamer myself, so this whole scene amuses me greatly.
I work in electronics repair. Most 'bricked' devices can be repaired. For the manufacturer, especially. Desolder some memory, resolder new memory in, reprogram, done.
Even if the vulnerability could actually damage / fry internal components, those can be replaced too. Assuming they can't light the entire device on fire.
He will threaten to brick their mining servers unless he sends them US dollars.
Fortunately, there's a way to mitigate the backdoor's actions using local hosts files.
APK, sir, your time has come. -PCP
It's a Bitcoin article on Slashdot, but as of yet nobody has complained that this is some sort of guerilla BUY BTC marketing. Also the only reference so far to Chinese miners tripped over itself in a clumsy "wild west/colonizing mars" analogy.
/. comments surface. Hope i'm not forced to read at (-1) to find them though.
will check in a few hours later to see if the predictable
Highly misleading. If miners are shut down, Bitcoin transaction processing would operate a bit slower for a bit, then it would adjust to the new capacity.
Yawn...
If they control 70% of all mining operations, then they could do a whole lot more than threaten to just brick mining servers.
They could just wait until the right time, and then launch a 51% attack (except with 70%) and take however many coins they want.
Relevant clip from Austin Powers: 100 billion dollars
It's about control of the majority of the swarm.
It's anything but yawn.
You yawn if you're not paying goddamned attention.
It's a DRM/Phone home feature. A backdoor would be running arbitrary code specified by the manufacturer OR changing the mining workload so the mining activity benefits a Bitcoin address different from the one configured by the owner of the unit.
it wouldn't bring down bitcoin
its not like the wallets would be deleted
a lot of hardware investors would be boned though
shoulda built your own rigs like a real miner
Long time Slashdot reader (10 years) who has yet to create an account (it's on my bucket list), so posting as an AC for now.
I've always considered Bitcoin to be something of a Ponzi scheme, though I've never been able to pin-point when it would collapse. Upon seeing Bitmain's latest ASIC miner, developed on a 14nm process, I think I've narrowed down the time-frame. 14nm is at the limit of commercial fabrication (Kaby Lake shares the same process node), though historically ASIC's I've seen were developed on a process geometry that was 1 to 2 generations old at the time.
I wonder what will happen when the computational power required to feasibly mine bitcoin exceeds the limitations of what cutting edge semiconductor processes can deliver. I temper this comment with a phase "never underestimate the power of human ingenuity". Time will tell I suppose, but mining difficulty is vastly outpacing semiconductor process technology improvements. It can't continue forever. My bet is that Bitcoin will collapse within the next 5 years and expose crypto-currency for what it really is. One enormous sham.
I welcome debate on the topic.
if such command would ever be sent, it could potentially brick the customer's device for good.
Ssh, noone tell BrickerBot.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
You don't get much of a control, you just get to brick 70% of the computation power, lots of unhappy customers to that company, but overall no significant impact to the bitcoin system itself. Block generation will happen at 30% speed until difficulty adjustment kicks in, that's about all that happens.
Please trash the ASICs. Please trash them so hard that investors tack on a 2x to 10x risk modifier when considering the cost of replacing ASICs with more ASICs.
Now, if these were GPUs being trashed, that would be a true tragedy.
shutting down mining equipment from a particular vendor will not stop bitcoin mining. even if it is as much as 99% of hardware miners. in fact, it will have no effect on the bitcoin network block generation or transaction speed. all it means is that the remaining miners will have easier job to do and will earn more reward coins.
It's about the hash rate.
It's about 'buying low, selling high' and that is one way how you do it.
Dismiss this nuance arrogantly and foolishly.
For those who are not familiar with what is currently going on in Bitcoin, there is a scaling debate, some call it a scaling war, which may result in a chain split. If a split happens, the chain with more hashing power will prevail. Say, you are mining on chain A and your competing chain is chain B. If you are able to disrupt chain B for several hours, maybe several days you may use your hashing advantage to mine empty blocks on the competing chain B. You want to keep these blocks secret. Once chain B regains its hashing power, you will have a crushing lead in regard to valid blocks. So, when chain B mines 1 block normally, you simply publish 2 blocks of your secret stash, empty blocks, mind you. Chain B will then abaondon their normal block and continue mining on your normal block. You can repeat this until your stash is empty, whlie continuing mining more empty blocks on chain B. This strategy serves as a multiplier of disruption time for chain B. What will happen while chain B is basically worthless (no/empty blocks!)? Price of that chain B's coins will drop significantly, which means that honest miners on chain B will receive less money in block reward, which will make them switch over to your own chain A, crippling chain B's hashing power even more. Shortly after, chain B is completely worthless.
This bakdoor is a nuclear weapon for the scaling war. I find it hard to believe that someone left a nuke lying around, accidentally.
True, but there is lots of motive there to abuse this. If you were able to do it your non-affected hardware will suddenly be much more valuable. Or perhaps could be part of a 50% attack.
love is just extroverted narcissism
As if this particular brand of mining equipment was the only one capable of validating bitcoin transactions. The loss of it would hardly cripple the bitcoin ecosystem.
I love a little self righteous butthurt in the morning.
Previous parent is a perfect example of naive and dangerous thinking.
Foolish.
0. I give 0 shits about this.
I don't "get" Bitcoin or any of the new cryptocurrencies. I darkly suspect that blockchain is a wildly overhyped technology solution for a very few use-cases, that is being sold to the masses. Currency mining seems to me more like looking under your sofa cushions for loose change than a viable business.
Thus when any problem is reported in this area of finance and IT, I give 0 shits about it.
Forget the default target domain. When equipment heats up like bitcoin miners will certainly do, you'll get a not insignificant increase in one-bit errors. So exploit them this way instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sgaq6OYLX8
Problem solved.
Hijack's what?