Antminers May Contain Backdoor Vulnerability…Or Buggy Security Feature
There have been recent allegations that Bitmain can shut down all of its Antminer mining hardware remotely. This supposed “backdoor” vulnerability has been dubbed “Antbleed,” and can be viewed via lines of code on Github and Pastebin. The website antbleed.com was created apparently to explain the vulnerability to the public. According to the website, the....
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A major North American blockchain hosting provider announced its expansion by ordering over 58,000 additional S19 Series Antminers, as part of an agreement arranged with the Chinese mining hardware manufacturer. US Contract Miner Core Scientific Arranges Purchase of Over 58,000 Bitmain S19 Antminers According to the announcement, Bitmain’s deal expects to facilitate Core Scientific customers’ purchases through September 2021. The purchase agreement will bring total purchases to 76,024 next-generation bitcoin (BTC) miners, the S19 and S19 Pro Antminers for the past 16 months,....
Major Bitcoin mining hardware producer Bitmain can remotely shut down almost all active Antminer machines. Dubbed the “Antbleed” backdoor, abuse of the vulnerability could probably knock half of all hash power on the Bitcoin network offline. “Even if Bitmain had no bad intent, this is a gaping security hole,” said our source, who discovered the backdoor but asked to remain anonymous. The backdoor code can be seen on Pastebin and on GitHub, and today a website has been put up for Antbleed as well. How It Works. The Antbleed backdoor is “stupid simple,” as our source described it. Whenever....
PoisonTap, a $5 USB device can create a backdoor entry to any locked computer, allowing hackers to easily get into online Bitcoin wallets. Technology can be used for both good and bad. As cyber researchers and developers continue to develop state of the art security features, the same set of skills can be used to circumvent them as well. Samy Kamkar, a hardware hacker has proven it with his PoisonTap device. The PoisonTap, comprising of a Raspberry Pi Zero microcomputer along with a USB adapter, costing no more than $5 is capable of wreaking havoc. According to reports, the device with....
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