Is your smartphone hardware safe?

[_act_]

I will not say that Ledger are just using it to advertise but having your coins on your smart phone may not be good at all. This experiment is conducted on a smart phone using Dimensity 7300.

The vulnerability can not be patched with software update because the problem is hardcoded in the chip.

Stolen or lost phones are used as example, which can make an attacker have access to your phone chipset.

To read about the vulnerability: https://www.ledger.com/blog-is-your-smartphones-hardware-safe

The chance this can happen is very low but if a phone is attacked, it only take short time to exploit the vulnerability.

[AprilioMP]

The safety of using a smartphone is questionable.
Thieves who have the ability to access our lost cell phones can sabotage our assets, especially if they know about crypto and Bitcoin.
It could be that the first thing after they succeed in accessing our cell phone is that they target the contents of our wallet on the cell phone.

[coinlary]

Smartphones were never a better option for self-custody wallets, just as you've also highlighted. The whole conclusion revolves around how the smartphone's hardware can be attacked. I think hardware wallets are not exempt from physical attacks, but the text claims their hardware wallet (although it's a generalized hardware wallet entirely) has a dedicated secure element, which makes it more secure for hosting self-custody wallets.

Huge amounts shouldn't be on a smartphone, but the smartphone itself is still considered safe so long as the owner doesn't use it for a series of activities that could welcome malware and the like onto the phone.

At the end, all forms of storage are not safe from physical attacks. Even a cold storage device is not safe when someone physically attacks you to forcefully get your seed phrase

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

The use of smartphone in this regard is completely unsafe, instead we can be smart in using a computer system, because we may not be able to avoid connecting our phone to the Internet and ideally, such should be on air gapped device, which we also should know what this means and it implications if not follow for security purposes.

[liasbaa]

When it comes to phone security, I think it should be safe when the phone is protected by a strong seed phrase to initially activate the screen. After breaking the primary security layer, if someone wants to steal the assets on the phone in the next step, they have to break the double security layer, which can be possible for a strong cyber robber. Modern phones have the opportunity to create a security zone through fingerprints. If we can build a double security zone of assets accordingly, it may not be easy for thieves to steal assets.

Asset security risks will be everywhere, it would be reasonable to set a cold place to be aware.

[Catenaccio]

The vulnerability can not be patched with software update because the problem is hardcoded in the chip.

Stolen or lost phones are used as example, which can make an attacker have access to your phone chipset.

The chance this can happen is very low but if a phone is attacked, it only take short time to exploit the vulnerability.

It's not only about hardware components of your smartphone but how you use your smartphone for. You likely bring your smartphone around and connect it to Internet, use public Wifi, install applications and more. Your smartphone likely will be used like your hot wallet that is not a safe wallet for storing your bitcoin or cryptocurrencies a long time.

Recommendation is never store your main fund or all your fund in your mobile devices: smartphone, tablet because they are basically hot wallets and you can lose your devices very easily by mistakes or by attacks.

[Somegory]

That's MediaTek chip, they are not safe normally.
The easiest bootloaders to unlock belongs to MediaTek processors, this is why I avoided them when I was trying to get myself a new smartphone, I went with Qualcomm's Snapdragon instead.

I want to show you guys some proof, my old phone was running on MediaTek Dimensity 7300 and there are many flaws that I don't even talk about but now is a good time to share it .

After getting my new phone I tried to move app from the old to the new phone, guess what happened? Dozens of the apps that installed peacefully on my MediaTek phone failed to install on the new Snapdragon phone. The same apps that I downloaded via Playstore gave me warnings on the new phone that these apps are not safe to install.

Fortunately I still have the screenshot.



Funny enough the new phone judged these apps as if I never downloaded them through Playstore but to clarify again, I went on Playstore using the old phone and uninstall the apps and reinstall via Playstore, move into thee new phone I got the same result.

Normally like I have said, MediaTek phones are the most vulnerable of them all, easy peacy to jailbreak them, they are not strong to withstand malicious apps and so on.

[Mahiyammahi]

Smartphones were never a better option for self-custody wallets, just as you've also highlighted. The whole conclusion revolves around how the smartphone's hardware can be attacked. I think hardware wallets are not exempt from physical attacks, but the text claims their hardware wallet (although it's a generalized hardware wallet entirely) has a dedicated secure element, which makes it more secure for hosting self-custody wallets.

Technology is evolving, you may find some phones backed by crypto . Solana Saga is one of them . It's a web3 Android phone with seed vault. Phone by Aptos. These are exception. But having this feature on every smartphone won't be bad. Who would have thought that our smartphone would have replace the television, radios and camera now it's possible. So in furure maybe crypto wallet also possible to integrate.

Safety always comes first, if my phones gets stolen with holding crypto on it. I would have chnage the phone even though I recover the phone from theif. Can't risk my lifetime savings on 500/600$ smartphone

[nakamura12]

It's better to not use the wallet installed in the smartphone if we want to keep our bitcoin safe from attacks but if still wants to use then it should be for a short time only and not for long time like safekeeping. There's also a situation where if we lose our phones is that the one who found it or even the one who bypass thwe security can take the funds in the wallet. Well, in my opinion is that I think having two phones is not a bad idea where you only use it at home for crypto purposes and other phone for daily use and such as to avoid the phone for crypto avoid exposure to outside that's just my opinion though).

[albon]

This is a very important report, as many beginners and even experienced users in this field still keep large amounts of money in their hot wallets on their smartphones. Everyone knows that phones can be compromised through malicious apps that the user downloads and installs on the phone. But the valuable point here, inspired by the report, is that even the hardware of our phone can be subject to attacks, along with the software. An attacker can exploit vulnerabilities on the phone, allowing them to potentially gain access to mobile phone.

It is worth mentioning here that it is not old chips, but the very modern ones that are being targeted in the discovered attacks.. Therefore, all modern phones, including iPhones which we pay a lot to purchase, may not be able to withstand these attacks. For this reason, hardware wallets, with all its advantages, isolated chips, and resistance to software and physical attacks, is the most suitable option for those holding large amounts for a reasonable price.

[The Cryptovator]

Technology is evolving, you may find some phones backed by crypto . Solana Saga is one of them . It's a web3 Android phone with seed vault. Phone by Aptos. These are exception. But having this feature on every smartphone won't be bad. Who would have thought that our smartphone would have replace the television, radios and camera now it's possible. So in furure maybe crypto wallet also possible to integrate.

How may you ensure that your phone won't be stolen? Either it's a crypto-backed phone or just a normal phone; both would be hacked or stolen. In case of a stolen phone, it's pretty easy to reset the password unless it's an iPhone. If thieves gain access to your phone, then they might drain your wallet easily. But for a hardware device, it's not easy to brute force your password. And a couple of tries would reset the device. This means even if your hardware wallet is stolen, you are safe.

Those at least capable of purchasing a hardware wallet, I prefer to do it. You can consider it as an investment to secure your portfolio; a hardware wallet doesn't cost a lot. With your phone, hackers would do anything, including reading your phone's hardware chips, whereas a hardware wallet will secure your funds even if the device is stolen. I don't feel secure storing my funds in my mobile phone; I only handle small funds for daily needs. All of my big funds are secured into a hardware wallet.