What Do the Red and Yellow Message Icons Mean?

[Royal Cap]

Today while visiting the forum's Important Announcements child board, I noticed that some of the message icons there look a little different. I thought it might be because of my adblocker. But after turning of my adblocker and other extension I realized that no, these are actually a feature of the forum.


Now I want to know what do these red and yellow message icons actually mean? I also checked the options when creating a new topic but I couldn't find such icons red and yellow icon there.

[Odohu]

Red mean high risk while yellow means medium risk like a warning. When a red sign appears in a topic, it is mean to alert people that of a high risk event. I have seen that in some other platforms I joined.

In some forums  red could also mean that such topic is not open for discussion like locked read only. Based on those topics by Theymos, it could mean both scenarios I mentioned.

[Vod]

Do you mean those red and yellow blocks?  Those are not standard forum icons - look to your adblocker being too strict.

[Nwada001]

For what the yellow and red mean, I can’t find any official meaning to them, but judging from the contents, red is on cases which have been confirmed, and it poses a serious threat. Red represents danger, so it can also be said to be a warning for immediate action.

The yellow is also sending warnings, but the issue might not actually be confirmed to the hardcore, which means there are still suspicious surrounding how dip the threat is.

[acroman08]

Do you mean those red and yellow blocks?  Those are not standard forum icons - look to your adblocker being too strict.

It appears on mine too, and I don't have an ad blocker. Maybe it's an indication of how severe the content of the thread is as mentioned by Odohu above(I could be totally wrong tho).

[Royal Cap]

Red mean high risk while yellow means medium risk like a warning. When a red sign appears in a topic, it is mean to alert people that of a high risk event. I have seen that in some other platforms I joined.

Yes, it can be. And I searched this icon related topic in the forum, but saw that there is no information on this topic. So I thought I would create a topic.

Do you mean those red and yellow blocks?  Those are not standard forum icons - look to your adblocker being too strict.

I have also tried turning off all my ad blockers and other extensions. Those red and yellow blocks do not go away. That means only admins can use these icons.

[Churchillvv]

Merely reading each caption on those threads you could tell what’s it’s meant to represent; the word CRITICAL is regularly used on the Red indicators while others seem to have words like POSSIBLE, which means there is only a likelihood.

However, you are maybe surprised because it’s your first time seeing such and of course some may not have seen or visited the board or frequently visit the board.

[Vod]

Do you mean those red and yellow blocks?  Those are not standard forum icons - look to your adblocker being too strict.

It appears on mine too, and I don't have an ad blocker. Maybe it's an indication of how severe the content of the thread is as mentioned by Odohu above(I could be totally wrong tho).

Can you give me a sample URL?   

[promise444c5]

Well, judging by the topic.. “how critical” should be  the closer guess

[acroman08]

Can you give me a sample URL?   

You mean URLs to those threads that have the red/yellow block icon?

If so, here, all of them were posted by Theymos.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5596402.0 - Serious possible issue involving Ledger hardware wallets and CryptoBilis
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5589975.0 - Critical vulnerability affecting COLDCARD users only
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5090097.0 - Electrum vulnerability allows arbitrary messages, phishing
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5034070.0 - New info escalates importance: upgrading to 0.16.3 is REQUIRED
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5032443.0 - DoS in Bitcoin Core: update required
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2702103.0 - Critical Electrum vulnerability
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=562409.0 - Bitcoin Core (Bitcoin-Qt) 0.9.1 released - update required

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Can you give me a sample URL?   

Those message icons only seem to have been used in the Important Announcements board, and it appears it's only Theymos who has used them when posting mostly warnings regarding wallet vulnerabilities, phishing attacks leading to loss of money, or DDoS attacks on Bitcoin core.

Being the admin, he is probably the only one who can add such color themes to the message icon, unlike other usual posters

[Upgrade00]

I also checked the options when creating a new topic but I couldn't find such icons red and yellow icon there.

It may be a feature that is only available to theymos to grade the importance of the announcement or it is only possible if you are starting a thread in that board. We cannot confirm this since the board is locked now.

[PX-Z]

I also checked the options when creating a new topic but I couldn't find such icons red and yellow icon there.

It may be a feature that is only available to theymos to grade the importance of the announcement or it is only possible if you are starting a thread in that board. We cannot confirm this since the board is locked now.

Its something new, like just few days old, i remember browsing that board after theymos posted that latest Ledger issue and put it on the News/note above, and i remember it wasnt there yet. Probably some icons to identify risks, like serious, moderate or mild.

[Vod]

Can you give me a sample URL?   

Those message icons only seem to have been used in the Important Announcements board, and it appears it's only Theymos who has used them when posting mostly warnings regarding wallet vulnerabilities, phishing attacks leading to loss of money, or DDoS attacks on Bitcoin core.

Ah, I've probably never been there before - that was the first time I've seen those!

[TypoTonic]

Now I want to know what do these red and yellow message icons actually mean?

These are all the message icons I could find. Based on the names, I would assume that red is for critical vulnerabilities that need immediate action, and yellow is for serious but less urgent warnings.

Name Icon Standard Thumb Up Thumb Down Exclamation Point Question Mark Lamp Smiley Angry Cheesy Grin Sad Wink

Name Icon Crit Warn Moved Recycled Wireless Dollar

I also checked the options when creating a new topic but I couldn't find such icons red and yellow icon there.

It says only VIPs, global mods, and admins can post in the Important Announcements board. Not sure if all of them can use the red and yellow icon though.

[DYING_S0UL]

Can you give me a sample URL?  

Those message icons only seem to have been used in the Important Announcements board, and it appears it's only Theymos who has used them when posting mostly warnings regarding wallet vulnerabilities, phishing attacks leading to loss of money, or DDoS attacks on Bitcoin core.

Ah, I've probably never been there before - that was the first time I've seen those!

Open those two icons/images in a new tab, and you can literally see them saying "warn.gif" as in warning and "crit.gif" as in critical (this is the only explanation). So those two colors are intentional, it's not any UIUX element bug or anything.  

Its something new, like just few days old, i remember browsing that board after theymos posted that latest Ledger issue and put it on the News/note above, and i remember it wasnt there yet. Probably some icons to identify risks, like serious, moderate or mild.

It's not new or anything recently added, because I have seen those icons a few months ago, when another serious warning post got pinned. I actually wanted to make a post about it, as I thought it was a result of bug/broken element. But later found out, it wasn't.

Lol, I thought you guys already knew, what those meant, since you all are old members here.  

[hd49728]

Those message icons only seem to have been used in the Important Announcements board, and it appears it's only Theymos who has used them when posting mostly warnings regarding wallet vulnerabilities, phishing attacks leading to loss of money, or DDoS attacks on Bitcoin core.

Being the admin, he is probably the only one who can add such color themes to the message icon, unlike other usual posters

Guidelines for posting in the Important Announcements child board.
I find an interesting thing, it's impossible to quote that Guidelines post.

The quote in locked thread SMF patch of PowerGlove only works in other boards, not in this board, with my discovery today.

Filter topics by last posts, top topics are created by theymos recent years but with admin role, Cyrus is possibly able to make important announcements.

      Guidelines    theymos
      Serious possible issue involving Ledger hardware wallets and CryptoBilis    theymos
      Critical vulnerability affecting COLDCARD users only New    theymos
      Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts    theymos
      Electrum vulnerability allows arbitrary messages, phishing    theymos
      New info escalates importance: upgrading to 0.16.3 is REQUIRED New    theymos
      DoS in Bitcoin Core: update required New    theymos
      Critical Electrum vulnerability New    theymos

[TypoTonic]

I find an interesting thing, it's impossible to quote that Guidelines post.

I wouldn't call it "impossible". You just have to fill up the quote attributes manually and use https://www.epochconverter.com/ to convert the date to Unix timestamp. For example, in the Ledger announcement, the opening tag would be like this:

Code:

[quote author=theymos link=topic=5596402.msg67225179#msg67225179 date=1791589994]

Of course, you will have to do the BBCode formatting of the post as well. Here's the full quote:

This is a developing story, but it seems that certain Ledger devices have been found to contain cellular-enabled bugging chips which can capture seed phrases. The Ledger authorized reseller CryptoBilis has especially been implicated as allegedly shipping these bugged devices, but more sellers could also be involved.

My recommendation would be:
 - If you have crypto on any hardware wallet which you bought from CryptoBilis in 2026, consider the seed phrase compromised, and move the crypto ASAP.
 - If you have any Ledger device which you purchased since about mid-2025, keep watching this story very carefully, since bugged devices have been found to have come from sources other than just CryptoBilis. This might be a wider supply-chain issue.

More info:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5596352.0
https://www.tibane.net/research/ledger-nano-x-implant

The "Guidelines" post:

Except for emergency security-related announcements, each person and organization may post a topic here at most once per week. This section is for only the most significant announcements.

Cross-posts are OK here.

Moderators should quote (not move) important announcements here when necessary.