How did the hackers even discover the vulnerability in the Coldcard wallet?

[standardnepo]

I am trying to understand how they think and how they approach something like this. Did someone notice a suspicious part of the firmware, realise that the randomness was weaker than it should have been, calculate all the possible seeds and then scan the blockchain to see whether any of those wallets contained funds?

Do hackers systematically examine the firmware and source code of different hardware-wallet brands such as Coldcard, Trezor and Ledger, looking for weaknesses in the way they generate seed phrases? Do they spend months testing different devices until they find one that produces seeds from a limited or predictable set of possibilities?

I understand that developers are human and that mistakes can happen. How does something this important make it into production without being detected?

[Kruw]

The bug was incredibly simple, it's shocking it was not discovered earlier. nvk is an incompetent blowhard who cares more about being a social media influencer than his hardware's security.

[un_rank]

Did someone notice a suspicious part of the firmware, realise that the randomness was weaker than it should have been, calculate all the possible seeds and then scan the blockchain to see whether any of those wallets contained funds?

Hackers are constantly trouble shooting security systems looking for vulnerability. The suspicion in thus case is that it was discovered years ago when those wallets were opened, the hacker got access to the seed phrase and sat on them for a while to allow the owners move funds into them before sweeping.

Do hackers systematically examine the firmware and source code of different hardware-wallet brands such as Coldcard, Trezor and Ledger, looking for weaknesses in the way they generate seed phrases? Do they spend months testing different devices until they find one that produces seeds from a limited or predictable set of possibilities?

Yes and yes.

I understand that developers are human and that mistakes can happen. How does something this important make it into production without being detected?

It's as you said, humans make errors. It also missed the eye of everyone as the codes are open source but no one spotted the vulnerability.

- Jay -

[Odohu]

The bug was incredibly simple, it's shocking it was not discovered earlier. nvk is an incompetent blowhard who cares more about being a social media influencer than his hardware's security.

I'm not that technically savvy in such security aspect but I do know that before such sensitive product is released for use, they are tested and retested as a means of verification. It is my thinking that Coldcard wallet passed through those tests and the vulnerability was not detected. What if some of these vulnerabilities are connected to insider sabotage? Welll this may not be the case since the codes are open source so the only option is that it just happened.

[Doan9269]

One thing with hackers is that they will never rest until the eventually landed at a particular prey, what they do is to continue with vulnerability search over every crypto entity that will give them access to hack easily, this is why once a vulnerability is not coming from the user end, scammers will never find it easy to hack any targets because they didn't have trouble user weak point to serve as an entry point for them, I'm sure after they have successfully identified this vulnerability with cold card, they would have similarly attempted on other hardware wallet without getting entry, except the also discover another vulnerability with any.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

The bug was incredibly simple, it's shocking it was not discovered earlier. nvk is an incompetent blowhard who cares more about being a social media influencer than his hardware's security.

I'm not that technically savvy in such security aspect but I do know that before such sensitive product is released for use, they are tested and retested as a means of verification. It is my thinking that Coldcard wallet passed through those tests and the vulnerability was not detected. What if some of these vulnerabilities are connected to insider sabotage? Welll this may not be the case since the codes are open source so the only option is that it just happened.

This is also what I suspected, maybe the hackers did buy versions of ColdCard, dis-assemble them and then try to look for vulnerabilities. So it's not like the attack is done by someone by accident. They might have studied and then de-compile the firmware.

And then look for the pattern, and as what it was shown, it was not random, that's why they were able to attack it will. I don't know what will happen to ColdCard because it's obvious that they didn't do their homework and it run for years until the hackers where able to discover it.

Or maybe it could be the help of AI agent too.

[Ashawowo(OS)]

I'm not that technically savvy in such security aspect but I do know that before such sensitive product is released for use, they are tested and retested as a means of verification. It is my thinking that Coldcard wallet passed through those tests and the vulnerability was not detected. What if some of these vulnerabilities are connected to insider sabotage? Welll this may not be the case since the codes are open source so the only option is that it just happened.

This is also what I suspected, maybe the hackers did buy versions of ColdCard, dis-assemble them and then try to look for vulnerabilities. So it's not like the attack is done by someone by accident. They might have studied and then de-compile the firmware.

Why would they go through that stress just to look for vulnerabilities while the firmware code is Open-source on github?

I believe the major loophole came from their firmware upgrade from GPL to MIT+CC which it's migration started since 2020. I believe the hacker was an insider who knew about this loophole all along and waited for the right timing to pull off this big scam.

OP, just visit this thread to know more, there are several replies there that can give you the answer you desire.

[hd49728]

The bug was incredibly simple, it's shocking it was not discovered earlier.

This was said but nvk and his team perhaps ignored this warning two years ago and anytime till this exploitation days ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj_W3xOlt6U

Perhaps hackers used AI to scan these things, found that video and took action for their jobs.

nvk is an incompetent blowhard who cares more about being a social media influencer than his hardware's security.

The nvk account was last actively in May this year. Maybe he will be back in the forum and not sure what he will said here after his hardware wallet's terrible security issues.

[Kruw]

The nvk account was last actively in May this year. Maybe he will be back in the forum and not sure what he will said here after his hardware wallet's terrible security issues.

Thanks, just left him a negative trust rating to warn others.