Question about addresses within wallet

[zero3112]

I generated a new armory wallet on a offline computer and backed up the wallet seed. I tested importing it and successfully re-added the wallet seed successfully allowing me to get all the keys back. This allows unlimited key making and its always backed up.

I am wondering if I export one of the private keys from an address out of the wallet if I can access the bitcoin and clear that one address out and if this will compromise the other addresses in the wallet? I will never re-use the addresses I cleared out but using this method to empty coins out of one addresses and then I'll send the remaining coins to a new address I generated in the wallet to always maintain offline keys and safe bitcoins. I keep various denominations in various addresses and keep lots of small amounts of bitcoin in many addresses vs. keeping a huge big amount of bitcoin in very few address. Thus when I export the address I have exactly the amount of bitcoin I need and don't risk losing a lot of coins.

[1714894460]

1714894460

[1714894460]

1714894460

[1714894460]

1714894460

[1714894460]

1714894460

[achow101]

You can export the private keys and still be able to access the Bitcoin. There is nothing stopping you from doing that.

It has the potential to compromise your wallet though. There was an attack (theoretical I think, don't really remember) that involved knowing the master public key and a private key and through those two, the master private key could be derived. I don't know the specifics to that though.

[zero3112]

Is there another thread on this or something that has the details on this?

[achow101]

Is there another thread on this or something that has the details on this?

I'm not sure whether the attack applies to armory since armory uses a different method of key derivation, but I think it does since the algorithms are the same in principle. It has however been proven to work with BIP32 HD wallets. Do a google search for "bip32 private key attack" and you will find some articles about it.

Here are two I found that may help:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/deterministic-wallets-advantages-flaw-1385450276
https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/998.pdf

[zero3112]

Which of the addresses in my wallet is the master public key. This mentions terminology that I don't understand. I get how a regular bitcoin address works it has a public and private key. But I don't get which key is the public master key in a wallet with unlimited address that can always be recreated again from the backup?

[achow101]

Which of the addresses in my wallet is the master public key. This mentions terminology that I don't understand. I get how a regular bitcoin address works it has a public and private key. But I don't get which key is the public master key in a wallet with unlimited address that can always be recreated again from the backup?

The master public and private keys are not any of the addresses in the wallet. They are something else and you can't easily view them. To find the master keys, you will need to export the key lists.

[zero3112]

Am I save then since the wallet is always kept offline and its just 1 of the addresses in the wallet the I am exporting the private key from. Or will this compromise all other addresses?

[achow101]

Am I save then since the wallet is always kept offline and its just 1 of the addresses in the wallet the I am exporting the private key from. Or will this compromise all other addresses?

That is safe. Just don't try to find and export or give away the master public key.