Offline/online wallet - swap harddrives enough?

[Anima]

Hello all

A noob question regarding offline wallets. The PC's with offline wallets are never connected to the internet, but does that mean that i shouldn't use an old PC and just swap harddrives (and of course disconnect/connect to the internet) for transactions?

Can malicious software reside within the PC's internal memory?


Going to use an old laptop/notebook for offline wallets, but it is also used for casual web surfing in the couch. I have a spare notebook harddrive that i want to use for the offline wallet. I will then swap the harddrive out for when i need some BTC.

Is this perfectly OK or should i avoid entirely?

[goatpig]

This is a gray area.

First of all, virus that persist an OS install do exit, they're known as root kits. They're targeted to infect NVRAM within your hardware, usually your BIOS.

Next, as with any other viruses, attacks that deliver root kits are usually targeted at Windows, as it is more vulnerable and represents by a large margin the majority of PC users. Unless an attack is targeted directly at you, the low hanging fruit rule applies.

The conclusion is: Any kind connectivity from your cold storage to a network is a breach of air gap. The discussion is about risk, I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with this setup.

Granted, if set a Debian on that laptop to browse with, it does reduce the risk of your model, although, again, I personally wouldn't do that.

[idoB]

...

Is this perfectly OK or should i avoid entirely?

Technically, from an operational security perspective - it's OK. Swapping a HD and rebooting is technically equivalent to booting another computer.

However from a human behavior perspective it requires scrutiny: when your offline HD comes on, you'd need the wireless to be off. Also bluetooth, IR. Also any USB that may be connected. There's a neat hack that even involves a USB mouse to inject malware. In short, it'll take discipline.