Own a Radeon RX 7000 Card? AMD Wants You to Flash Its Firmware, and It Still Won’t Say Why

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David_Schroth

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GPU firmware updates are rare enough that most of us forget video cards even have a BIOS. When one shows up labeled “security” with no further explanation, it’s worth paying attention. Starting earlier this month, Sapphire posted model-specific firmware updaters for eight RDNA 3 cards on its support and downloads page: the RX 7600, 7600 […]

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Wow... this means that there is a way to exploit the firmware on these cards to do something unintended. I'm betting it's a form of web based code injection that runs a hidden AI engine on the card letting people use your power/processing in an undocumented manner. Or encryptocoin mining. But the AI one just sounds WAY more nefarious now a days.
 
Ditchinit said:
The latest version of a TSR (terminate and stay resident) malware?

Am I showing my age again?
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A bit but really that IS what I am betting this is going to turn out to be. A way to use your GPU for undocumented purposes. And personally I lean towards running a node in a multinode AI.

Trick is it has to be low impact/utilization... or folks will see it. (In temps and power draw if not in GPU utilization. I imagine that can be hidden if you're re writing the firmware.)
 
Or a few years back, it could have been unauthorized bitcoin (or some variant thereof) mining. Or what was that kerfuffle about an extra component on a Chinese manufactured motherboard ... allegedly added to the board for spying purpose? The common denominator is these all rely on external telemetry.
 
Ditchinit said:
it could have been unauthorized bitcoin (or some variant thereof) mining
Click to expand...
One time many years ago, I grabbed a version of whatever CoD game was relevant at that time from the high seas, and lucky me it came with a bitcoin miner.
 
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