All those were mostly fishing type of attack that has potential to affect exclusively transactions signed by "hot" Electrum while trx signed by "cold" one remain immune.
No attack is targeting 'signed transactions' in any way.
That's not a surface for an attack. You either target the key storage or the signing process. But not the transaction itself.
If the transaction is signed, there is nothing which can be changed anymore.
The transaction has to be manipulated before signing, which can happen either on an online computer or offline computer (e.g. through compromised USB).
Another curiosity that is driving me crazy is the secure element that is put into the specialized chips of hardware wallets. What makes the secure element so secure and makes it stand exceptional from others?
A hardware wallet contains a hardened microcontroller with less interfaces than a normal microcontroller and a smaller attack surface.
The private keys are stored inside of (and never leave) the secure element.
Upon booting, it verifies the firmware (whether it has been tampered with) and only proceeds if the software running on the nano s is genuine.
The private keys can not be extracted out of the nano s, the only way to 'access' the private keys is to give it a transaction to be signed (which requires a verification on the device itself).
Extracting the private keys itself, is not possible.
NOT Kali, this is a VERY UNSAFE distro (runs as root). It is meant for attacks not protection, like a bunch of tools you take to a place for penetration testing on commission, not intended for installs or continued use.
Kali itself is not unsafe. Upon installation it doesn't create a normal user account, but this can be done with an one-liner.
The reason kali is not suitable for everyday-use is because it requires quite some configuration if you want to use it as your daily OS.
Tails OS comes with Electrum client built into the OS
It does, but it is outdated.
You won't be able to connect to an electrum server with the outdated version.
So, you'll need to download it anyway, which lets you also choose any other distro.
