Dear crypto community,
it has come to our attention that several crypto currency projects have been targeted with fake, trojaned coin-stealing wallets.
Someone or someones has/have compiled their own "fixed" version of the wallets, based on the original source code but building in couple of nasty features.
The fake wallets have installed a remote access backdoor to the PC they've been ran on.
In addition to that, they've also sent user's funds to attacker's addresses.
This far only Windows versions have been seen, but it would be stupid to assume fake Linux and Mac OS X wallets would not pop up eventually.
Altcoin.Center is working with the Finnish hard core anti-malware company F-Secure to come up with solutions to the problem.
F-Secure's anti-virus programs already detect the first trojaned wallet we found.
If any new cases turn up, we would be very grateful to have samples of them available ASAP. In fact we're so keen to having new fake wallets analyzed right away that we offer a bounty: a fully free license of F-Secure Safe (1 year, 3 devices, value 59.95 €) for anyone who provides us with a previously unknown/undetected fake malware wallet.
Altcoin.Center is also looking into different ways of providing proof of wallet authenticity through a fully distributed process. Until that process is ready and usable, we'll bring in some temporary assistance by, for example, announcing valid wallet checksums (MD5 and SHA1) through our DNS system. Eventually, our goal is to create a P2P based trust solution that heavily uses PGP to do things such as sign all the blocks, sign other wallet's pgp keys, check file trust level using pgp signatures, and so forth.
We'll also be providing thorough yet easy to follow instructions on how to seriously harden the security of any Windows, Mac OS X or Linux machine. We have decades of experience of secure systems design in the company, and intend to share that information with everyone free of charge and free to use.
Remember: Always carefully check where you download your crypto wallets from! Always use only the download addresses announced by each crypto project's official developer(s). Beware forum posts with quotes - the links inside the quotes may have been altered.The malware infected wallet phenomena appears to be rather new, and will in my educated guesstimate grow into a significant problem with nastier built-in "features" added to the wallets and more clever means crafted to make users fall into installing them.
Stay awake - no fear!
- Jyri
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Altcoin.Center
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