Bitcoin Forum

Hi all,

When using the paper wallet via bitaddress.org, I advice you to check the public address first in blockchain.info.

Reason: I created a new paper wallet, then checked the pub address and there is 1 BTC on it! Strangely enough, the corresponding private key didn't match!! This means that you better always  double check the private key before sending funds to your paper wallet.

Although it might be possible that there is a bug in bitaddress.org, it is far more likely that you have malware on your computer that changed the bitcoin address. Or that you simply made a mistake and that the address that bitaddress.org generated is not the address that you looked up.

No, I checked it multiple times. I also extracted the public key from the private key (via Armory) and it results in a different public address. Malware, well, in these days of APT's you never know but normally my machine should be clean.

Wow, that's really strange i made one last month from their. Why don't you report this bug/issue to them - maybe they dig deep in it
and tell ya what's the mess up is about.

I'm on it  ;)

If true this could be devastating, because Bitaddress is used to such a great extent. It also may have gone unnoticed for a long time, because the main use of this service is cold storage.

I'm no JavaScript expert. But could it be caused by a malicious script injection?

(Posting here to remind me.)

ya.ya.yo!

If you want more insight, it would be useful to post both the keys you are discussing AFTER, and only AFTER, you have moved any coins, had a good number of confirmations and made sure you aren't sending any coins there.

Nice thread.

Thanks to know all these.

Further to DannyHamilton's response, I too wonder if it is a case of an isolated incident.

Have you tried to create more paper wallets since? Did you observe the same problem?

Could you not share any details on the keys seeing as you will presumably not be using it?

The change log doesn't show any updates since April, so if there is a bug then it will have been around for a while. I would have expected to hear more reports into this.

Good job that you checked though - think that it is good practice to check things and then check again before going ahead with it when it comes to crypto.

Well, here's an update.

I scanned both QR's with my phone. The left one (public key) doesn't match the written BTC address below the QR. The private key QR was correct.

In other words: the left part of the page (Bitcoin address) > QR code doesn't match BTC address below the QR. As I used my desktop machine I copy/pasted the btc address in blockchain.info > result: 1BTC on this address (felt like I won the lottery)

Conclusion: Both QR codes match each other, both keys printed in clear text don't match. Check before using you must  8)
Luckily I didn't send BTC to this address!

If this bug is real it can make people lose a lot of bitcoin. People make paper wallets and send moeny to them and never check if the key matches the address or not. How do one check the key offline?

Download Electrum on a machine that has never had it installed before & unplug machine from internet.
Run Electrum and then Wallet --> Private keys --> Import [type in the private key and make sure it brings up the correct address.]
Then delete all the info from the proper locations on your PC to be sure that there is no record of the private key.

-Dave

Well then it's serious. What browser do you use?

Any response from the bitaddress team?

They should take down the site until they have identified and solved the error.

ya.ya.yo!

Gr8 idea! I will do this prior to sending any amount to any paper wallet. Thx for this. +1

Folks, I tested it by myself and keys are okay.

Open issue: https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org/issues/90

@ArpFlush could you post an image with the key pair? It is not useful for you, isn't it? I would like to see it by myself.

I wouldn't reveal anything publicly yet. First, import both the uncompressed and compressed private keys that Bitaddress generated. Each type of private key corresponds to a different address.

Please take a look at the Bitaddress' IP address that you get because someone could modify your local DNS, proxy or any other record in the LAN. If that is posible then you could be accessing to a fake Bitaddress.org site.  

Sure: (sorry for the upside/down)

https://i.imgur.com/UPrzkUR.jpg

fixed that for you:

https://i.imgur.com/ALgnDQe.jpg

Edit:

private key: 5KaDTTWPxdwxrFYboxQPJiXgqwua9SULLCvLFEBuGkbeQnSLAoG
results in address: 16obDHVzXx1YevqkAkDyN5Vbqw4V8iauGf
according to brainwallet homepage [1].


[1] https://brainwallet.github.io/

No response yet. I used Chrome on a Win7.

thanks, and your result isthe same as mine  ;)

I just dropped by to say I've read this thread.

The code has been around a long time and no one has made this type of claim. The code has unit tests to ensure accuracy. Also, in testing we have used the bulk wallet in the past to generate 10,000+ addresses and tested them against other bitcoin software to ensure only good matching pairs are being generated.

Even in this claim the generated address and private key match because the address is passed into the function that creates the QR code for the bitcoin address. Meaning the complex bitcoin part of the code worked fine. So, the behavior that is claimed to be affected would be the simple code that is updating the HTML.

As a sanity check I would ask the OP to run the unit tests by placing a query string at the end of the page, please do this with the offline version you presumably downloaded.
https://www.bitaddress.org/bitaddress.org-v2.9.3-SHA1-7d47ab312789b7b3c1792e4abdb8f2d95b726d64.html?unittests=true

OP was your browser or system misbehaving in any way you could detect? Was your system low on memory or anything that might shed light on this? My questions are just speculatings.

At this moment it seems more plausible you have encountered some new malware. Easier for malware to change the text in the HTML then to swap out the QR code. PLUS the wrong bitcoin address shown in your screenshot has money on it meaning that someone else controls that key. If this were a legitimate code failure it would not produce an existing bitcoin address because a collision like that is theoretically impossible.

Another question to OP. Did you check the SHA1?

Remember way back in the beginning of this thread when I said that it was far more likely that you have malware on your computer that changed the bitcoin address?

Guess what.

I did about 3 seconds of research with a Google search now that you finally posted the address, and it seems pretty clear that you have malware on your computer that changed the bitcoin address:



Security Inform (http://www.securityinform.com/2014/04/24/google-chrome-extension-reportedly-stealing-bitcoin-or-other-cryptocurrency-data/)

Yes, thats the address! Good catch.
Chrome extensions are a big security problem, no just for bitcoins. 

Wow, I didn't know this existed. It's not on my Chrome now (unless I installed & unstalled it months ago).
Antivirus check = negative, but as usual there were some trackers and stuff (that I deleted too)

Thanks for the update!

Edit: So I think this problem is solved. Bitaddress.org is safe to use  ;)

Thank you for resolving this!

Good to know that bitaddress.org is free of errors.

However it is disturbing to see all these kinds of malware targeting Bitcoin-related services... it makes you feel unsafe executing any script... Well at least the criminals agree, that Bitcoin has value... ;)

ya.ya.yo!