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AMD Uses DMCA to Mitigate Massive GPU Source Code Leak (Updated) (archive) (2)
AMD has filed at least two DMCA notices against Github repos that carried "stolen" source code relating to AMD's Navi and Arden GPUs, the latter being the processor for the upcoming Xbox Series X. The person claiming responsibility for the leak informs TorrentFreak that if they doesn't get a buyer for the remainder of the code, they will dump the whole lot online.
[...] In a DMCA notice sent to development platform Github, AMD identified the recently-created 'xxXsoullessXxx' repository and a project titled "AMD-navi-GPU-HARDWARE-SOURCE" as the location of its "stolen" intellectual property.
"This repository contains intellectual property owned by and stolen from AMD," the semiconductor company wrote. "The original IP is held privately and was stolen from AMD."
Github responded by immediately taking the repository down, as per AMD's request. That prompted us to try and find the person behind the repo and to ask some questions about what AMD was trying to suppress. The individual informed TorrentFreak that AMD's GPU source code was the content in question.
The seller was reportedly looking for $100 million. AMD called the information "test files" and says that "the stolen graphics IP is not core to the competitiveness or security of our graphics products".
Also at TechRadar and Tom's Hardware.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by KilroySmith on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:56AM (4 children)
So let's assume this is the Verilog or equivalent for the entire chip. What are you going to do with it?
Even if it was complete and included all the necessary scripts and tools to compile it, you couldn't just send it to TSMC for fab. There would be...questions...asked.
You can't decide you're going to use it as the basis for your own GPU. By the time you and your ASIC design team could grok the code (presumably without the architecture and design documents) sufficiently to use/modify it, it would be out of date. It's kind of like Microsoft releasing the source to MS-DOS 5.0 - it might be interesting from a curiosity POV, but it ain't gonna help you overthrow the WIntel duocracy.
There might be bits of IP that you could steal for your own designs, but if you ship a GPU, you can bet that AMD's lawyers will be on your doorstep with an IP lawsuit faster than you can say "Anthony Levandowski".
A hacker might be able to spelunk long enough to find undocumented capabilities or even bugs in the part - but that doesn't impact AMD's bottom line.
Any current GPU manufacturer is going to treat this like radioactive garbage. Any engineer dim enough to download it and bring it into a competitor's network will find himself living under a bridge.
It's possible that a company in a less-IP-friendly nation might wish to develop a local GPU to assure supplies. They could conceivably use the stolen design to eventually develop a homegrown GPU, perhaps 5 years behind the state-of-the-art. It's not clear that this would impact AMD's bottom line anytime in the next decade either.
So, a big 'meh' from me. Sure, AMD doesn't want the code out there, because some bluenose politician somewhere will get their panties in a bunch about inappropriate comments or somesuch; or some patent troll will spelunk looking for evidence of some infringement on the 15 year old patents they bought by the pound at an auction, but that's about it.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Thursday March 26 2020, @11:55AM
You’re right, even with a complete Verilog database you don’t have the chip layout, package design, qualification testing and so on. It’s really hard to gain a competitive advantage at leading technological edge by stealing IP.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2020, @03:29PM (1 child)
1) China (or Russia, Israel, or country of choice) uses these and starts up a local domestic competing product. The US is already complaining about "forced technology transfer." This is almost as bad, and would jump-start a new industry by decades.
2) Organized crime now searches the source for exploitable bugs. Or worse, it leaks out and becomes script-kiddy fodder.
3) The FBI and other security groups now has "a plausible explanation" about why they should be able to crack into computers. They can use is as cover for Parallel Construction [wikipedia.org]
That's not even considering how The Ministry of State Security [wikipedia.org] (or FSB [wikipedia.org], DPSD [wikipedia.org], or intelligence agency of choice) uses their state-level resources to examine the source to find exploitable bugs. That's more macroscopic The Great Game [wikipedia.org] style things which has very real effects on international geopolitical things, but is so far removed from individual experiences that most people can't grok it.
So yes, this actually does have an impact to you and your life. Maybe not as much as a 0-day exploit of Windows, but it should be more than a "meh."
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Friday March 27 2020, @03:50PM
1) was covered in my comments about "a company in a less-IP-friendly nation". They won't be able to sell it outside their borders, and will be almost as far behind as if they started from scratch. Do you really believe that it would take India, China, or Russia "decades" to build a modern GPU from scratch? Have you ever been involved in a chip design? Didn't think so.
2) Noted in my comments about a "hacker". So what exploitable bugs do you expect my GPU to have?
3) I have no idea what point you're trying to make here. What's the link between the FBI and Verilog?
As far as state-level intelligence agencies - you aren't suggesting that none of those are capable of accessing the design source if they desired are you?
So, yeah, still 'meh' to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2020, @07:57PM
What seriously? Hacker be not the least bit curious about how their machines work? I'm disappointed. It's very useful.