But to me this sounds like a way for Jihan to be able to kill BTC at any given time. How the fuck we managed to not notice this earlier? this is a disaster. Imagine if Jihan got paid by PBOC trillions to brick all the ASICs at once...
Not even just Jihan. The code doesn't properly authenticate the server. Any random asshole with MITM can switch off ASIC's. The chinese government could turn off all antminers GLOBALLY using the Chinese firewall to MITM the phone home connections. Anyone in the world with access to a BGP router can do it. Anyone who can MITM the connection between the ASIC and bitmain can do it.