Bitcoin address poisoning attacks

[_act_]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:

https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-address-poisoning-attacks/

It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction and do not copy your address from transaction history.

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

[Catenaccio]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:

It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction.

It's not "now targetting Bitcoin users" but this scam existed years ago.
What are Address Poisoning Scams?

There is Dust Attack.
Dust Attack, what it is, why it is dangerous and how to prevent falling to it.

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

Things start with Bitcoin, not with altcoins because if Bitcoin did not exist or succeed, there is no altcoin launch and scam. I don't imply that Bitcoin motivates scammers or it is a reason of altcoin scams, but scammers will try their scam attempts with a biggest and most successful blockchain and cryptocurrency. They know that they can succeed and get more stolen money with Bitcoin than with altcoins.

[_act_]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:

It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction.

It's not "now targetting Bitcoin users" but this scam existed years ago.
What are Address Poisoning Scams?

There is Dust Attack.
Dust Attack, what it is, why it is dangerous and how to prevent falling to it.

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

Things start with Bitcoin, not with altcoins because if Bitcoin did not exist or succeed, there is no altcoin launch and scam. I don't imply that Bitcoin motivates scammers or it is a reason of altcoin scams, but scammers will try their scam attempts with a biggest and most successful blockchain and cryptocurrency. They know that they can succeed and get more stolen money with Bitcoin than with altcoins.

You are getting it wrong but good that you know about the attacks. Address poisoning attack is different from dust attack. In Dust attack, the attacker will send minute or small amount of bitcoin to the victims and it is used for tracing the persons coins. In address poisoning, similar address that looks like the victim's address is generated. Can you see that both are very different.

Address poisoning did not start with bitcoin. You are also getting that wrong also. It started with those altcoins. I have seen many dust attack on altcoins before but not in bitcoin which still makes me to think if these were not made up just to warn people because to generate bitcoin address in full with the characters of your choice is not something easy to do. It requires high computational power that probably ASICs are needed for it.

I may still go to the technical board to ask the question there.

[Taskford]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:

https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-address-poisoning-attacks/

It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction.

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

There's recorded $1.2m damage it cause for Bitcoin users on month of March https://www.ainvest.com/news/bitcoin-users-lose-1-2-million-address-poisoning-scams-march-2025-2504/

That amount is huge and we can see that even if there's lots of warning about this attack we could see that this is still affecting people. That's why its good to increase more the awareness of people so that they would know that BTC address poisoning exist and so they can avoid this risk that can possible compromise them.

[|MINER|]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:

https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-address-poisoning-attacks/

It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction.

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

I never copy wallet address to send the btc from the recently transaction. But what I did I copied my wallet address from the my posts in this forum.
Anyway, even if we copy the address direct from the wallet, we are not safe at the moment.
Because you may know about clipboard malware(How to lose your Bitcoins with CTRL-C CTRL-V), currently, just being careful when copying addresses from transaction history is not enough. When copying an address from anywhere, you have to double-check it thoroughly before making the transaction. 

Anyway, thank you for bringing this topic up, even I never copy addresses from transaction history but it will prevent me from copying addresses from transaction history in the future. 

[DYING_S0UL]

Just imagine Bitcoin poisoning method and clipboard malware merged together by the hacker! That would be one destructive package for every crypto users! Tbh, it's relatively easy to generate vanity addresses that matches your original address. And if you are a newbie who just started, could easily fall for scams like these. Even I used to only check the first and last 5-6 digits of my address. But after experiencing the clipboard malware myself, I started checking the whole address.

I never copy wallet address to send the btc from the recently transaction. But what I did I copied my wallet address from the my posts in this forum.

Same here mate! I have been doing the same, whether it's for participating in sig campaigns, or contests, or transaction etc!

[Hatchy]

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

It had first started with major altcoins. Though we shouldn't be surprised now that scammers are moving into poisoning BTC addresses. Yes it's not a new thing, but then we should still be careful about it. Address poisoning might Seem a bit difficult to fall victim as an elite bitcoin user, but no one is above mistake.

From the article, the author clearly started that the amount of BTC users scammed using this is not much and total sum of 0.2btc or so. We just need to avoid copying address from our transaction history and stay safe.

[hugeblack]

Without being part of a social attack, it's difficult for such attacks to generate returns. Such anonymous attacks are a waste of time. But what's difficult about address verification? It only takes a minute and can save you from many of these attacks.

[Porfirii]

Surprisingly I have read today a news on one of the most famous news portals of my country about address poisoning attacks in Bitcoin, and itms not something we usually read in these mass media, so it seems that the cases are increasing for real.

After years of being aware of the risks, I always read and re-read the addresses multiple times, in fact the fact of copy-pasting addresses awakens me some sort of OCD and I have to check multiple times the characters before pressing the send button. The curious thing is that I've never found a wrong address pasted, at least for now, but I'm aware that I must keep doing it, just in case.

[EL MOHA]

Things start with Bitcoin, not with altcoins because if Bitcoin did not exist or succeed, there is no altcoin launch and scam. I don't imply that Bitcoin motivates scammers or it is a reason of altcoin scams, but scammers will try their scam attempts with a biggest and most successful blockchain and cryptocurrency. They know that they can succeed and get more stolen money with Bitcoin than with altcoins.

Address poisoning as far as I know didn’t start with bitcoin and even if it did start I think it wasn’t common and it’s maybe the reason why most people do not actually know of it. It is possible in bitcoin but has its hassle than altcoin, one of the hassle is generating a similar address to the targeted address, although bitcoin vanity address generator can simply do this I don’t think it is that easy when compare to how you will generate such address with altcoin.

Secondly is the transaction fee, bitcoin usually has low transaction fee too as we have now but there times it is extremely high to have such low transaction fees which is a problem in address poisoning. Third hassle which is the most important distinction is the amount to send, address poisoning usually use amount below cents but it is usually difficult to see bitcoin wallets that allows the transfer of such funds, most bitcoin wallet do not allow transactions who are much lower than the transaction fee to be broadcasted.

[348Judah]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:

https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-address-poisoning-attacks/

It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction.

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

To start with, let me drop the most recommended safety precautions on this that have been discussed by other members before now on this same regard.

How to lose your Bitcoins with CTRL-C CTRL-V
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5190776.0

And here is another related example on this same subject matter

Bitcoin Address Clipboard Malware
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5259534.0

If we are aware of all these, we may not be a victim of anything related to them, in cryptocurrency, we deal most about being informed of what is right to and as well as what to expect coming, so that we can prepare for such coming.

[Perfectbaby]

This is one thing I don't do because when making transactions and the address aren't cross check before making payments it could be that during transaction they poisoned the previous transaction where the user wouldn't check and copy from his last transaction and make payment without knowing it's going to the wrong address, in fact even when sending to an exchange address it's always important to login to exchange and cross check the address before sending out payment as most exchanges might likely update or upgrade their address where the previous address could be obsolete making someone to lose their transaction just what Binance did 2 years ago thereabouts.

[Mia Chloe]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:
https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-address-poisoning-attacks/
It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction.
This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

Wow so something similar to a vanity search or vanity Gen for generating addresses for altcoins is even easier to almost clone an address compared to the one for bitcoin? Well if that's true then it seems pretty much like POW beats POS all the way.

Nevertheless, when sending across wallets it's best to observe mainly the last characters of the address. This is because to an extent you can mask an address by generating one similar to it from the first set of characters using vanity gen but it would be more difficult towards the last characters.

[Zoomic]

According to what I have read before, those altcoins addresses are easy to generate which makes scammers use them easily for address poisoning attacks but according to this article, scammers are now targeting bitcoin users. You can read the article yourself:

https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-address-poisoning-attacks/

It is something that is preventable. Make sure you check and recheck your bitcoin and other crypto addresses very well before making any transaction.

This is no more new especially to altcoins but some people will still possibly be victims of the attack.

I have always had this self consciousness to always cross check my transaction details before initiating a transaction. When I finally got involved with bitcoin, the consciousness is still there; check and recheck bitcoin addresses before going on with any transaction. At least, the thought of the fact that bitcoin transactions are irreversible puts me in that alert mood whenever I am dealing with bitcoin addresses and figures.

Newbies shouldn't just get carried away with anything Bitcoin, security consciousness is very important to keep them ahead of online thieves.

[suzanne5223]

You are getting it wrong but good that you know about the attacks. Address poisoning attack is different from dust attack. In Dust attack, the attacker will send minute or small amount of bitcoin to the victims and it is used for tracing the persons coins. In address poisoning, similar address that looks like the victim's address is generated. Can you see that both are very different.

Address poisoning did not start with bitcoin. You are also getting that wrong also. It started with those altcoins. I have seen many dust attack on altcoins before but not in bitcoin which still makes me to think if these were not made up just to warn people because to generate bitcoin address in full with the characters of your choice is not something easy to do. It requires high computational power that probably ASICs are needed for it.

I may still go to the technical board to ask the question there.

You're right that dust attack and the address poisoning attacks are different^{(Based on how poisoning attacks were explained by Lopp, although I just learn about it now )}.
However, the 2 attacks are launched on both Bitcoin and altcoins. The major difference is that the attackers started/focused more on altcoin than Bitcoin, and I believe the true decentralized nature with the inclusion of dev's support of Bitcoin blockchain could to the attacker's major drawback because there's not much enthusiasm in altcoin projects like how we see in Bitcoin.

[khaled0111]

Wow so something similar to a vanity search or vanity Gen for generating addresses for altcoins is even easier to almost clone an address compared to the one for bitcoin? Well if that's true then it seems pretty much like POW beats POS all the way.

Sorry, but I am failing to see the link between generating similar address and the POW and POS consenus protocols and can this be used to tell which one if them is better!
Could you please elaborate more on this.

Regarding the main subject, I read the article linked in the OP and I think the writer’s analysis methodology is flawed.
I think for this attack to be more effective, the attacker must generate an address similar to one the victim usually interacts with, not one of their own. After all, who would copy their own address from the wallet’s history tab instead of just clicking the Receive button? Surely not someone who knows about the drawbacks of address reuse!

[Mia Chloe]

Sorry, but I am failing to see the link between generating similar address and the POW and POS consenus protocols and can this be used to tell which one if them is better! Could you please elaborate more on this.

Alright my point is simple. Bitcoin uses POW mechanism and you can use a tool like vanity gen to create a custom address. If you've used vanity gen before you will notice that the more you customise the address the more time it would take to hash a private key for it. Now what I was trying to say is bitcoin network beats the altcoin network if a tool like vanity gen for alt coins still works easy to hash a key for a customised address. Unlike the one for bitcoin where the more characters you customise the longer it takes to hash a key.

[khaled0111]

Alright my point is simple. Bitcoin uses POW mechanism and you can use a tool like vanity gen to create a custom address. If you've used vanity gen before you will notice that the more you customise the address the more time it would take to hash a private key for it.

I get your point about relating the generation of similar addresses to PoW, as both are resource and time consuming processes depending on the complexity of the desired outcome. However, they aren’t really related. PoW consists of hashing the block header again and again (while changing certain variables for each attempt) until the result is below the difficulty target, whereas tools like VanityGen generate random private keys until they find an address that meets specific criteria.

Now what I was trying to say is bitcoin network beats the altcoin network if a tool like vanity gen for alt coins still works easy to hash a key for a customised address. Unlike the one for bitcoin where the more characters you customise the longer it takes to hash a key.

The thing is, VanityGen (or any similar tool) works the same way (as I explained above) when generating altcoin addresses as it does when generating Bitcoin addresses.
What makes it seem more effective for altcoin addresses is the fact that most altcoins (like Ethereum) use Base16 (hexadecimal) encoding, while Bitcoin addresses use Base58 encoding.
So, to find an address that starts with a specific character, there are only up to 16 possibilities for an Ethereum address, while there are up to 58 possibilities for a Bitcoin address.

[Mia Chloe]

~snip

I'm not saying the POW mechanism of the bitcoin network has any direct effect on how how vanity gen works on the bitcoin network compared to other networks that makes use of POS mechanism. I'm just saying if that be the case for instance then it's like another point the bitcoin network (POW) has over altcoins (POS).

To find an address that starts with a specific character, there are only up to 16 possibilities for an Ethereum address, while there are up to 58 possibilities for a Bitcoin address.

Well this hits the nail on the the head. That's because it simply means hashing would be more difficult for bitcoin addresses making address poisoning more difficult too.

[btcltcdigger]

Bitcoin addresses are easy to make as well. When i was playing around with bitcoin core, i had a script that could generate few hundred addresses per second. I had no use of them at the time, it was just me learning and playing with the technology, but seeing now for what it's used, seems i was a bit ahead of my time