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Bitcoin => Important Announcements => Topic started by: Mike Hearn on August 11, 2013, 04:29:08 PM



Title: Action required by all users of Android-based Bitcoin clients
Post by: Mike Hearn on August 11, 2013, 04:29:08 PM
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=271831.0

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http://bitcoin.org/en/alert/2013-08-11-android

We recently learned that a component of Android responsible for generating secure random numbers contains critical weaknesses, that render all Android wallets generated to date vulnerable to theft. Because the problem lies with Android itself, this problem will affect you if you have a wallet generated by any Android app. An incomplete list would be Bitcoin Wallet, blockchain.info wallet, BitcoinSpinner and Mycelium Wallet.

In order to re-secure existing wallets, key rotation is necessary. This involves generating a new address with a repaired random number generator and then sending all the money in your wallet back to yourself. If you use an Android wallet then we strongly recommended you upgrade to the latest version available in the Play Store as soon as one becomes available. Once your wallet is rotated, you will need to contact anyone who has stored addresses generated by your phone and give them a new one.

If you use Bitcoin Wallet by Andreas Schildbach, key rotation will occur automatically soon after you upgrade. The old addresses will be marked as insecure in your address book. You will need to make a fresh backup.

Updates for other wallet apps should be released shortly.

Some technical details of what exactly has gone wrong inside Android will be released once the upgrade process is reasonably compete. I will keep track of the upgrade status of each wallet app I know about in the post below.
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