Bitcoin Forum

We all know that it is not advisable to use e-banking, credit/debit cards, etc over public WiFi as the information can be misused by the hackers.
Is there any chance that the same can happen if we make bitcoin transactions over public WiFi ?
I assume due to high security measures in bitcoin, it is not possible. Am I correct ?

Broadcasting a transaction (which has to be public by it's very nature) with public wifi is perfectly fine.

Connecting any computer with private keys to any network is always a security risk.

Unless you use an online wallet, no. even in case of a full MITM, the signed transaction is publicly available. The worst that can happen is that you are fed false information (sybil attack) or that your transaction is withheld from the rest of the network (DoS).


No, its because the sensetive information do not leave your machine, it has little to do with the scenario you describe. If you are worried about the bank stuff, use a VPN you trust (works with bitcoin aswell) and/or check SSL certificates (not needed for bitcoin, unless you use an online wallet).

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A local network should not be trusted anyway, esp. if its unknown. If thats your default setting, you should fix that. Thats a general issue though and not related to bitcoin.

The only thing that anyone on that network (for example a hacker) can see is that you are using bitcoin (for example when you start your bitcoin wallet and connect) and in case there is a man in the middle he can see the transaction and that is already public knowledge as soon as you broadcast it.

with credit card however the information you type in the sites such as card number, CVV2, password,... are secret information that an attacker can use.

... if they are able to make you trust a false certificate. Which is more complex than a simple MITM. Its commonly used in many companies, but they also own the hardware so they install a pre-trusted root certificate that can sign their fake ones.

Using it over a WiFi isn't a problem, but do not use it on public computers and do not share your private key. If someone spies on the connection, they can steal sensitive info about your wallet and you don't want that to happen...

What sensitive info are you talking about?

I didn't quite understand what you said about using a public wifi for transactions through Bitcoin. Do you need to share your private key when using it? I don't think you don't need to. About the sensitive information about your wallet, I don't think it has sensitive information (only private keys I guess? If you decided to input it) that's the beauty of Bitcoin, you don't need to hand out real information about you.

Is it not possible for the hacker to see your password as you're typing it into electrum for instance and isn't there a way he could find out your wallet seed?

No, you never need to share your private key.


I agree, it can be a possible privacy issue though. Someone eavesdropping on your connection can learn about the addresses you use and might even be able to connect that to a photo of yours.

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Not over the network, decryption is done locally. Shoulder surfing is always a risk when using a computer in public. You can mitigate that with a blanked though.

http://i.stack.imgur.com/bDeLe.png

I don't think so there will be any issues unless you sign into a faulty site and that's not protected. I think all wallets and transaction are secured, there no need to really worry and if the hackers want to hack, they will figure a way out. I am using public WiFi most times faced no problems till date, hence can say there are no issues.

I guess using public - WIFI is not that big deal or do not have a chance to the hacker to have your bitcoin using it.

I used and open my bitcoin and have transaction using public wifi yet there is no error or any signs of hacking my wallet then,
there is no risk on my part using Public WIFI.

This is worth to check https://scotthelme.co.uk/advanced-session-hijacking/
Actually i think same types of attack can be done to access victims web wallet account as most of the them use traditional cache and session system to keep user logged in.

So i think accessing bitcoin web wallet over public wifi can be dangerous.

I check once a day my wallet over a wifi network without any trouble. I never had any security concern since I started utilizing my wallet on my phone, bitcoin in nature is already designed with security build in.

Don't worry and feel free to start using your wallet today on any Wifi network.

What, seriously ??? i always loged in to my blockchain account over public wifi in my college, connected them directly without vpn or something that helps my connection secured  , but so far my account still safe though the password on blockchain is never shared with the blockchain server, well anyone can explain this???? i am not a tech savy that's why i didn't quite understand about this, if it's true that there is a risk in using bitcoin over public wifi, thanks btw.

That's actually right. stealing cache and then insert it into the hacker's browser and then the site will thinking that he's the same person as the original owner who has recently accessed his wallet. this trick often used on a various website that sometimes requires a premium account to do something. just download the cache, install it and you'll get the thing you need. simple as that

I'd disagree with your basic premise that banking over public WiFi is unsafe. I do all my online banking over public WiFi ( McDonalds, library etc. ) and have fewer problems than when I was using Virgin cable. In fact I have no problems. My bank gives me a plastic card reader to access my account. To gain entry you need to
- Have the card reader associated with the account
- Have the card associated with the card reader
- know the PIN associated with the card
- know the account number associated with the card.

Unless you have all of those, you can't access the account.

With Bitcoin, you can reduce your exposure by separating payments and receipts, and keeping your main wallet offline.

Ofcourse not , Because in credit card or some online banking there are some special codes uses by us like cvv code , pin code like things which makes risk for us when these are steal by the hacker .
But in Bitcoin their is private key which cannot be exposed by the wallet through WiFi networks .
So in my opinion there is no risk to use Bitcoin transaction over wifi network .

There is a risk of a computer using public Wi-fi to be hacked.

If the PC is hacked,the hackers might gain acess to online btc wallet account paswords and other

important information.

if you can't take the risk of using public WIFI maybe you should use the mobile 3G or 4G data i don't think it will take much data from you if you are trying to save it because in your country that is expensive

I think its fine to use or transact bitcoin using public wifi. Besides, we all know its risky to connect a computer with private keys. Using public wifi and private internet connection are both risky because your computer are exposed to viruses that can catch all your details including your private keys. If you are hessistating, then dont use public wifi. Thats very simple..

The odds that someone with enough skill to get something from you over wi-fi just sitting around and checking random peoples outgoing data are slim. There's being paranoid and then there's being over the top. If your dealing with lots of coins use as secure a connection as possible but otherwise I wouldn't sweat the odds myself. If you keep around 1 btc in a mobile wallet to use on the go I would not worry about anyone stealing it when using public wi-fi.

I agree with you. I think they couldn't just get information on what you have, even if it's online wallet. They would attack the main servers of the site that had your wallet. Maybe it depends if they are really good, but it's rare. (Maybe your paranoia is caused by watching too much TV) If you really are paranoid, you could just wait to connect to a secure connection. If that's really important, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Definitely. If you pay for a service using Bitcoin, a malicious user can change the address PROVIDED that the information is not transferred using secure medium, (HTTPS).

If you are talking about making Bitcoin transactions then there is a slight risk. Bitcoin wallets*, by default do not transmit over private keys and it is impossible for anyone to do MITM(Man-In-The-Middle) attacks on you.

However, a malicious user can make your wallet connect to fake servers that is run by then. Your wallet can be tricked into thinking that it has received transactions.


*NOT online wallets, coinbase etc.

I think it is risky but you can secured your transaction just use a vpn in your phone or laptop so that you can not be trace..
This is just what i experience because i have many gadgets here as a technician if i log in some website and i use other laptop you will notice that it is less secured unlike if you use a computer and other internet you will be ask if you are the owner or not like in gmail. this is just what i experience so it is better to use vpn every transaction..

There's no risk of using bitcoin via public wifi because its common at public places nowadays. Don't be afraid that you will be get hacked, all you need to make sure that you are using your personal gadget and not borrowed one, why? Its because some gadgets do have installed key loggers which steals your personal info's specially your key passwords on your any transactions online. You are not secured and now the risk is there already, to give an advice just don't use a pc or mobile phone that doesn't belong to you just to be sure that all of your online transactions were secured all the time.

I dont think it will be any cause any harm because there are too many security codes and by the time u l leave that public wifi .so now u have make sure that the public wifi is known to u .otherwise it can corrupt u in a bad way .hope it helps .kudoos :)

I also do not think that its bad to use the bitcoin on a public wifi, most likely its not something that can harm you!

I would not access my online wallet via public Wifi, because of the threat of a Man-in-the-Middle attack. Any transaction that would give someone

access to your private key, should be avoided. Some of these online wallets store the private key on their side, and once you access the service..

a hacker could hijack the session or even spoof it. Using these services over your own internet, is already too risky.  >:(

I think that usibg credit cards/btc/and any currency online using a public wifi is a risk.Cause we all know that there are smart hackers that can acces your account in your computer by just using his own public wifi that youre connected in

I use bitcoin transaction using public WIFI yet there is no sign of hacking or issues to my account so I guess using this public wifi is not that harm for transacting to other, and the only security of bitcoin from user's hand is their private keys, which is so and very important in every account, if that thing was lost I guess your account will be gone into your hands.

Ofcourse using bitcoin in a public wifi has a risk, Hacker.can  snipe your information over the wifi . Its better to just use your personal wifi or data connection when you are using bitcoin of course for safety.

I am using public wifi seldom only for rush researches in school , but seldom i use my connection for safety of my accounts

I think there will be no harm because you don't need to put your private key when doing a transaction unless you're importing it in a new wallet . If you're using an online wallet then it will be risky too .  I highly suggest that you should not do a transaction or open your wallet in a public wifi/computers if thats the case however if its emergency just use a vpn or tor network .

Online wallets can already be manipulated by hackers even if there were no wifi connection involved (server side to be specific). How much more of it is on public use?

    In your assumption yes transactions can not be a tool for hackers but instead they could get your amount by breaching the wallet where you have processed the transaction

If you make a transaction with a public WiFi, the transaction itself most likely will not be corrupted.
But if somebody observes the transmitted data, and that data is not sufficiently encrypted, he can find a way to get your log in data.
And then he would have access to the coins on the wallet where you have made the transaction with.
At least if an online wallet was used.

I don't think there is a chance that your bitcoins / wallet can be hacked by just simply using over the public wifi. Unless you will enter your private key and the owner of that public wifi has keylogging software. That's the only way I can think and possible way for you to be hacked, you don't have to think about it either for we are only few in this world who uses bitcoin.

Perhaps not. Bitcoin is well developed and secured by many ways. It is extremely hard to hack or steal Bitcoin if owner knows how to protect it. Maybe you can lose your Bitcoin if the hackers take over your computer and automatically send your Bitcoin to their wallet.

There will always a risk if you connect through public wifi imho due to hacker could get into your mac/smartphone, although the probability is too small to meet a hacker and steal your wallet information. Well, we should watchful to do bitcoin transaction over the public wifi, but to access into bitcoin wallet need verification code which sent via text message as I've been set it like that, so it seems pretty secure.

Personally, I'd avoid public wifi in general if at all possible. While it may be safe to broadcast a transaction over a public network, there are certainly risk of sniffing and man in the middle attacks for other actions you do. I'd rather make the connection over a cellular network than use a public wifi network if thats an option.

I don't think doing any transactions over a public wifi can cause any problems like that as long as you are not showing any private key or something like that which can be harmful for you wallet if someone got them.

i do not expect any extremly harmful hacker tracking you physically and will try to write a python tool to grab your private key. Don't worry its safe to use

It is ok to use as long as you use a vpn we never know if there are hackers around us,the most important thing is always be sure that there are no key logger software running in your computer so they cannot trade your private key ..Always in full alert if you are using windows os compare to linux it is easy to hack.

Depends on how much coins you are holding. I never use public wifi, to be honest I try not to use wifi at all when dealing with sensitive information and sending transactions.
I'd compare it to chances of you being hit by a car when crossing the road. They are slim, but still are.
Better safe than sorry.

Never thought about dangerous to use debet/ credit cards and e-banking through public wifi. There were couple cases where I used mine in public wifi. I think this case is also spreading to bitcoin wallets and transactions through it, cause it's also that thing where you have to type your pass word to provide the operation.

Unless an intentional attempt will happen, what I mean is how a person that wants to steal some information will attempt to breach the public wifi if they aren't sure if there is any bitcoin enthusiasts doing a bitcoin transaction in the network location of the said wifi area. by random guessing? Well it's more hassle one than doing a direct attack.

But for a bright and wise way, if we are really care for our coins then we shouldn't do some bitcoin transactions over public shared network. People don't need any reason for here. All money transactions online must be done in a sole network of theirs.

In line with your statement, the user should also create dummy wallets and distribute hi coins to different wallets with different emails. That way even if one account is hacked he will not lost everything out of his bitcoin. This is called a diverse protection, placing your bitcoin in different wallets also increase more protection aside from just placing 2fa .

Its always risky using internet with your devices with private keys. Using public wifi i think theres nothing to do with hacking its the internet which is full of viruses that can infect your device and take all your details and your private keys. I suggest to stay offline as possible. Dont use internet if you dont really need it. There is a few chances that you could get hacked through public wifi. So be careful. If you are hessitant of doing transanction using public wifi. Then dont do it.

I do not think you can infect your device just from connecting to a WiFi. The only thing that can happen is to get viruses from downloading different stuff. On android it's hard to get the system infected though, and on Linux it's almost impossible. For creating new wallets I prefer using a fresh operating system so that I have the least chances to get infected.

This is true and have heard several similar attacks on facebook account, email accounts etc but haven't heard about someone accessing blockchain wallet like this but i think this is possible. Even password aren't saved in blockchain.info server it will be stored in your browser, when you will give access to your browser it will store cache which can give full access to your wallet or account. Better not to use bitcoin web wallet over public wifi, even some school kids know much more about hacking stuffs these days.

Wifi could be dangerous. Not directly to your Bitcoins but you can get infected with different malwares and some of them could steel your data including your wallet data. Especialy if you are using private wifi networks you should be very careful.
When I'm on wi-fi I'm trying to avoid Bitcoin and banking transactions.

In most cases , it might not be a problem . But you can never trust public WiFi's . They can always find out which sites you visited and the information given by you. But as said no-one is fucking interested in all that. But using public computers and such things can harm you. They can easily hack your account and steal your cash. So it's better if you use your private WiFi or mobile network for such things. Thanks

Just as said , public Wi-Fis are usually controlled by some hacker so whenever someone tries to connect ti it he can send a malware or a key log so he can retrieve all your passwords and I am surethat he can get your wallet password ; so stay away from these pubic Wi-Fi and keep scanning your computer for malwares.

Well i really haven't heard about getting hacked from using public WIFI but in my opinion its really not possible that a using a public WIFI you can get hacked from some people that is using the same Wifi that you used but still its a highly secured settings if you want to ask that every Wifi has a secure IP address  and it cant be really get hacked because someone is going to monitor that Wifi zone so that they can check how people are doing in times of a public wifi but its only my opinion i don't really have a knowledge about it but i really tried a public Wifi but its fine but its really nice.. well its a nice and best transaction if we use public WIFI now its very easy to activate the transaction and have many users of bitcoin :D