Be aware of fake firmware floating around.

[mikeywith]

I saw this on FB a few times, and today someone tried to catch some fish around the forum, luckly the topic was deleted, i hope nobody fell for it



what these people show you is a live miner running say at 15xhash, then they download this .exe file and launch it, go back to the same page and suddenly the hashrate is at 28-30xhash.

they started to be active since the fall of prices, when things started to get really rough for miners , they know many people will be more than willing to boost their hashrate by 2x, when lambo ?

always use your common sense, too good to be true ? scam !

- there is no way you getting 100% improvment on only software level
- running a windows executable file to modify a linux based miner is b.s that you should never trust regardless of the source.

you should also notice that many of those custom firmware have much higher dev fees than they claim,so should you decide to use one, monitor it closely.

stay safe fellow miners.

[sarcheer]

I replied to the thread you have screenshot before it was deleted. I ran the linked “firmware” through VirusTotal, which alerted to it being a backdoor/trojan.

In this space especially, people need to be extremely cautious about everything they bring into their network environment. Only takes one mistake to have a realllly bad time.

[bgasolder]

Fake firmware, works even without hash boards
https://business.facebook.com/asic.service/videos/2119808188348016/

[jackg]

Fake firmware, works even without hash boards
https://business.facebook.com/asic.service/videos/2119808188348016/

that's great!

@mikeywith, if you have the video link saved can you do a virustotal on the exe, use the link function in virustotal don't actually download the thing? I'm curious as to whether it's supposed to fiddle with the miner or use some sort of heuristic to find a wallet file that they can send to themselves?

Obviously this is quite a cheap gimmick. Anyone who's done anything with hacking or even certain code changes on the browser side will know how this can be done.

[HagssFIN]

There is a saying, which goes 'there are no free dinners'.
And if something sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is not true.

It's that simple.

[kano]

I replied to the thread you have screenshot before it was deleted. I ran the linked “firmware” through VirusTotal, which alerted to it being a backdoor/trojan.

In this space especially, people need to be extremely cautious about everything they bring into their network environment. Only takes one mistake to have a realllly bad time.

I think it's important people should also realise that a virus check has no guarantee to find a virus - so if you do grab some software from somewhere and it passes your virus program check, that doesn't mean it doesn't have a virus.

Virus checkers only check for known viruses, so if someone makes a download and writes a new as yet unknown virus to put in it, it's possible to pass any virus program checks.

[kano]

...
I think it's important people should also realise that a virus check has no guarantee to find a virus - so if you do grab some software from somewhere and it passes your virus program check, that doesn't mean it doesn't have a virus.

Virus checkers only check for known viruses, so if someone makes a download and writes a new as yet unknown virus to put in it, it's possible to pass any virus program checks.

Also be aware - related to the above - that there are Windows viruses that do in fact change your pool settings in any miners they can find and point your miners to mining for someone else.

While standard manufacturer S9s so not allow this virus to affect your miners, a program like awesome miner has the standard option to allow such viruses to get into your miners.

[Raymond_B]

Also be aware - related to the above - that there are Windows viruses that do in fact change your pool settings in any miners they can find and point your miners to mining for someone else.

While standard manufacturer S9s so not allow this virus to affect your miners, a program like awesome miner has the standard option to allow such viruses to get into your miners.

This is my fault Kano, I did not know that I had enabled the setting in AM's Antminer API Access option page.

[kano]

Also be aware - related to the above - that there are Windows viruses that do in fact change your pool settings in any miners they can find and point your miners to mining for someone else.

While standard manufacturer S9s so not allow this virus to affect your miners, a program like awesome miner has the standard option to allow such viruses to get into your miners.

This is my fault Kano, I did not know that I had enabled the setting in AM's Antminer API Access option page.

Well no, the problem is that is the default setting in that program, if you wish to change the API access: make make it open to anyone who can connect to the miner.

[mikeywith]

How do I get good firmware?

Usually the firmware which is provided by the manufacturer is good enough, most of them put out some updated firmware from time to time (some of them disable SSH access like bitmain) but it does not really matter to most people.

the other option is to get an open source firmware like Braiins OS which is pretty good as well.

the real question tho, why do you want to change the firmware that comes with the miner? if it's to save a bit of power, do a bit of tuning then it's understandable, however if you are looking for 100% or 50% more hash rate then you shouldn't be mining in the first place, you should understand that the overall improvements you get from using "another" firmware are very limited, anything that is too good is simply fake.

[potificate]

With all of the "evil" firmware out there... is there a wiki/sticky here somewhere that has a list of all firmware known to be good?
Perhaps even with stable OCs and/or undervolts along with the dev fees that each charges?

If it doesn't exist I think I'm probably not alone in thinking that it would be an amazing resource to have.

Many thanks
Potificate

[favebook]

With all of the "evil" firmware out there... is there a wiki/sticky here somewhere that has a list of all firmware known to be good?
Perhaps even with stable OCs and/or undervolts along with the dev fees that each charges?

If it doesn't exist I think I'm probably not alone in thinking that it would be an amazing resource to have.

Many thanks
Potificate

That is actually a great idea!

Someone should make a list or wiki.

I personally know only three users on Bitcointalk whose firmwares I would dare to use, and only two of them I am 100% sure of.

[philipma1957]

I have over 70 sha 256 miners mining about 2.1ph  I have 8th on brains  the rest on stock firmware.

To be fair  I have over 1 ph of bitmain gear purchased via paypal.  Thus a real warranty good unit May-June 2  So I won't bother touching this gear with after market firmware until June.

[potificate]

I have over 70 sha 256 miners mining about 2.1ph  I have 8th on brains  the rest on stock firmware.

To be fair  I have over 1 ph of bitmain gear purchased via paypal.  Thus a real warranty good unit May-June 2  So I won't bother touching this gear with after market firmware until June.

So, how did you arrive at using Braiins firmware? Did you compare it against competitors like asic.to, chipless, etc. and it came out on top?

Thank you!

[kano]

With all of the "evil" firmware out there... is there a wiki/sticky here somewhere that has a list of all firmware known to be good?
Perhaps even with stable OCs and/or undervolts along with the dev fees that each charges?

If it doesn't exist I think I'm probably not alone in thinking that it would be an amazing resource to have.

Many thanks
Potificate

There is only one firmware that doesn't violate the cgminer license.
Braiins is the only one that has a full valid source code to the software.

Supporting any others is supporting people who violate the license for the cgminer software that many people have spent years working on
... though most people including many in this thread don't seem to care - and will use or say they will use such firmware in the future.

The license is simple, you must supply source code for the miner upon request, if you distribute a firmware.
The cgminer source code has been there for 9 years, open source, GPL, and free to use.
Stop supporting people who break that license requirement.

[philipma1957]

So, how did you arrive at using Braiins firmware? Did you compare it against competitors like asic.to, chipless, etc. and it came out on top?

Thank you!

I purchased 20 s9's on ebay one had braiins.

I tested and liked it.

Many people offer firmware yet I don't use them. I am not into using firmware that violates copyrights etc.

[Biffa]

Should there be another caveat before anyone recommends anyone using these third party firmwares?

Have any of them proven that their firmware has been installed in a miner that has found a BTC block?

I've not seen anything to that affect, but it seems like lost of people don't care, even people who purportedly care about BTC

[NotFuzzyWarm]

...
Have any of them proven that their firmware has been installed in a miner that has found a BTC block?
I've not seen anything to that affect, but it seems like lost of people don't care, even people who purportedly care about BTC

Considering that the cgminer API even has a report found block function, one does have to wonder just why not a single person has bothered to post anything proving said modified firmwares actually finds BTC blocks.

Hell, monitoring software like AwesomeMiner lets you set a trigger - Detect found blocks - to log it and notify ya. If folks are so fired up about using all these FW's then take the time to PROVE they work!

[favebook]

Not that I am against proving that it works, but if it is getting accepted shares registered on pool, isn't that enough of proof? Also, imagine how much PH, time and LUCK would you need to prove that you can find a block?

Additionally, I am not sure about this 100% but I do not think they modify anything else other then frequency, voltage and fee; Someone correct me if I am wrong. But I would love for @taserz, @vnish (if he even has bitcointalk acc) @chipless and other custom firmware makers/sellers to chime in and tell us more about it.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Some pool operators need to chime in on this but AFAIK, getting shares accepted is only part of the proof. Latency between getting/sending shares, # of rejects, stales and other things have to factor in as well. Again the FUP that Slush had a couple years ago with a VERY large miner being paid $$$ for over a month of bad work caused by a screwed up proxy comes to mind.

Considering that the devs have often stated that some large farms use the modified FW it should be a piece of cake to get proof. Heck, I only run just over 1/2 PH and to-date have hit 10 blocks on Kano.is or roughly 2 per-year since I started running there. Very large farms should be popping blocks left and right and considering most run some sort of monitoring software (or damn well should be), just set it to look for the block found flag and log it.