PSA: Nvidia's CMP 170HX Full Compute and Memory(80GB) may be unlockable via exploit

If you don't know, the CMP 170HX is essentially a A100 that has had it's compute and memory crippled so it can only mine crypto. It was a product of the crypto craze, and was released shortly before the crypto crash.

Well, I was scrolling around and found out, apparently, it can be reverted back to an A100 using an exploit in Nvidia's Falcon security processor.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/408132536_A_Canary_in_the_Crypto_Mine_Defeating_Stack_Protection_in_a_GPU_Secure_Coprocessor

https://preview.redd.it/6lbe88w9fidh1.png?width=1249&format=png&auto=webp&s=32a738b4bb742f803388447a26214c43448d3154

The details are in this paper published last month.

There was a PoC repo that verified the compute unlock(https://github.com/arabel1a/cmpunlocker), but it seems to be down now. The memory unlock has yet to be replicated.

For reference, the A100 goes for over $5000, while a 170HX went for under $200(before all the sellers found out about the news).

TL:DR: We may be able to buy essentially a A100 80GB for under $1000 soon, if this is legit.