Related thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5440058.0Posting this as a wake-up call about how far people would go to scam you into sending them your BTC.
So this guy (or more probably organization) spammed the internet (multiple domains / websites / GitHub repos referencing each other like crazy) about so-called "attacks" based on actual research. His claims are backed by lots of step by step pictures and theoretical information about the how and the why, making it seem as if it's authentic, but hiding the actual code that would be the attack itself.
His/their latest invention: attack 28, or so-called "dust attack with confirmation of isomorphism"
This blends the harmless but annoying dust transactions method (which can only be used to track links between transactions really) with some magical recently disclosed on the "dark web" method to use Montgomery ladder to create "confirmations of isomorphism" that allegedly forces a receiver wallet to send you back your own wallet balance.
Makes sense so far? Sure, let's digest a little. So you go through endless screenshots from how you setup your environment to make it seem like you're a hacker of some sorts. For ofcourse, this is all made for "research" purposes to prove its validity!
Then sure enough, to make the attack work, you'll need to create and fill your own wallet with as much money as possible. Because as it's already "proven", dust transactions + magical "confirmation of isomorphism" will send you back that same amount back to your wallet.
Ofcourse this is all really advanced stuff, so sure you'll need to create some transaction to send out some dust and provide your private key in some scripts and the attacked wallet's last TXID, because yeah, the research scripts need them to create the "raw transaction" to send out the dust BTC. All this besides the "source code" packaging some weird EC math modules and why not, the entire pip package manager itself zipped in some weird way, to make things smooth. No worries so far...
The steps show you exactly how completely valid this raw transaction looks because, OMG, you can verify it in various 3rd party services like any transaction decoder. Nothing wrong so far, right?
During all this you are indicated that it's very important to shut off your internets while you generate the raw transaction, because oh no, some malicious app can intercept your private key of your wallet (you know, you just filled it with lots of BTC to make you rich twice that).
Then, after reading the 13th time a screenshot and a link to the Montgomery ladder theory (copy pasted from SafeCurves), you have to isomorph the hell out of your 100% valid raw transaction, because yeah math works out and Montogomery issue and why not, and its just revealed on darknet in January 2024 and it's been used in 2022 and everyone is freaking out about it, so this method of making your own dust attack is on the hype today!
But HOW do you create the isomoprhic transaction so that miners (you need two it seems) confirm it and the attacked wallet sends you back double of your funds? Oh well, that is classified material because this guy apparently worked out the Montgomery ladder scriptSig stuff for you, so all you need to do is
input your raw valid transaction on his website via a form input! ANd this will return back the motherf**a isomoporhism in a split second!
But because this is very complicated stuff, you do need to replace some bytes in the returned transaction to make it valid again. No worries, the steps are very clear on how to copy paste some public keys and hashes back into that blob of data. Because the magical server script was too busy working out the isomorphism attack so it forgot to do it itself Sure seems very legit so far since ofcourse your own private key is safe and sound, right? You even turned off the internet access to create the damn transaction, and you knew exactly where you send out the dust and the change - back to you.
Then ofcourse you verify the final transaction, with the "twist" that the attack does require you to create a SegWit address to get back your funds. Ofcourse, that is a wallet address you create yourself as well, because you sure as hell can trust the source code, nothing spooky going on inthere. You own the private key!
And ofcourse, at the end you broadcast this valid transaction that will make you rich once 2 miners confirm the isomorphism.
Backed up by this attack are examples of succesfull attacks on 2 5000 BTC wallets! With the raw transaction, and the isomorphic results, and everything you need to be sure this is 100% legit! I mean hard wallets and online exchanges are fighting this attack for years, because llook what can happen!
But at a closer inspection, what the hell just happened?
- you created a transaction for unspent outputs you didn't own, but signed those inputs with your private key (e.g. complete nonsense, though mathematically valid)
- the nonce used for all those signatures depends on the transaction hash, as the source code shows
- you then sent out all of those signatures to some server located who knows where
- got back a new set of signatures from server
Nevermind the fact that the raw transaction "example" provided as a successful attack is the actual transaction that emptied the 5000 BTC wallets, since it contains the public key of the address. The public key was only first ever available AFTER that specific transaction took place, so clearly the example raw transaction could have never ever be created just from the target wallet address.
So the only "attack" this method shows is the "researcher"s attack on your inteligence.
YOUR PRIVATE KEY is easily recomputed by the magical server using either the forged known nonces or probably through the final transaction that you need to "fix".
Your wallet funds will probably be emptied even before you manage to do all the stupid copy-pasting required to "fix" the "isomorphic" transaction.
