Security Researcher Unlocks Full NVIDIA A100 Capabilities on Mining GPU via Voltage Glitching

A security researcher has successfully utilized a voltage fault injection vulnerability on NVIDIA’s GA100 silicon die to transform a CMP 170HX cryptocurrency mining card into a fully functioning A100-80G accelerator. According to the disclosure, the technique allows an operator to blow arbitrary fuses on the chip, bypassing the strict product segmentation boundaries established by the manufacturer.

The investigation reveals that the modified mining hardware actually achieves roughly 1.2 times the performance of a retail A100 processor. While standard retail units ship with 108 enabled streaming multiprocessors for yield safety, the unlocked hardware activates all available SMs, ranging between 120 and 126 depending on the specific die. Additionally, features typically disabled on mining variants—such as NVLink and PCIe Gen4 support—become accessible through this approach.

The researcher explained that NVIDIA's design relies on a fuse controller featuring 16,384 eFuses divided across specific regions that dictate hardware capabilities and option words. In a properly secured architecture, blowing a fuse should only induce a more restrictive operational state. However, the flaw permits operators to relax limitations by altering fuse records, successfully utilizing concealed high-capacity high-bandwidth memory hidden within the mining cards.

Prior to publication, the findings were disclosed to NVIDIA’s product security team. The researcher noted that the public release follows an independent discovery of the same vulnerability by another security professional.