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Backdoor Could Allow Company To Shut Down 70% of All Bitcoin Mining Operations (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the newest-controversy dept.

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.

13 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Wait, let me get this straight... by Baron_Yam · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Wait, let me get this straight... by istartedi · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm going to go downtown, park at the sturdy Bitcoin building, walk in past the colonades and marble lobby, right up to the sturdy oak desk of my local and well-respected Bitcoin representative and seek reassurance that his institution is sound, and that my deposits are safe, fully insured, and returning the advertised rate of interest.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  2. First post brought to you by by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    APK!

  3. Oh noes!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    My imaginary money is at risk!!!

    1. Re:Oh noes!?!?! by SpankiMonki · · Score: 2

      Slashdot - a forum where everyone should ideally be technically savvy enough to recognize Bitcoin as technological bullshit.

      mmm...I consider blockchain technology to be fairly sophisticated, but I'm probably not as savvy as you.

      I'll grant you that the bitcoin ecosystem is a mess. It has devolved into exactly the dragon the system was designed to slay - i.e., high degree of centralization, dependence on trusted intermediaries, etc.

      Whether or not bitcoin can ever become competitive with the established electronic currency systems remains to be seen, but I'm betting it will never become anything more than nerd funny money.

    2. Re:Oh noes!?!?! by Boronx · · Score: 2

      Bitcoin will be around as long as drug dealers find it useful.

      --
      Play Command HQ online
    3. Re:Oh noes!?!?! by supremebob · · Score: 2

      Don't forget those cryptolocker assholes as well. Bitcoin is like PayPal to them.

    4. Re:Oh noes!?!?! by MangoCats · · Score: 2

      Bitcoin was always destined to become highly centralized and dependent on trusted intermediaries. The only way it wouldn't go there is if everyone who used bitcoin actually participated in the mining and understood what they were doing. As soon as non-miner, non-savvy people got in the game (day 2, I would assume) the devolution began.

  4. Host files? by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If ONLY there was a host file expert here to tell us if this were true!

    1. Re: Host files? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      There's a commenter, APK, who comes into anything related to computer security on slashdot and spams about his Hosts Engine. The host engine he distributes has mixed reviews, but appears to function acceptably for those who use it, and he clearly means well. Which doesn't stop the fact that he's in ALL the threads, or was, until he and whipslash had a confrontation or discussion or something.

      The fact that the summary explicitly asks for a hosts file based solution is, of course, the joke: it's being posted directly to the lion's den.

  5. a poor-man's wild west by epine · · Score: 2

    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.

  6. not a big deal to those who don't mine by reanjr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  7. Re:Single points of failure abound in bitcoin by JcMorin · · Score: 2, Informative

    While that seems bad, it would be fixed without a few hours for most miners. The source code is open (even the mining software with remote stop code). Miners can freely recompile it and update it. There is also a simple dns trick to remove that domain and point it to 127.0.0.1 Don't worry, Bitcoin can't be shut down that easy and there is no single point of failure.