Coldcard hardware wallet developers release firmware to fix critical vulnerability

Coldcard Bitcoin hardware wallet developers release beta firmware patch to fix vulnerability, which affected the Ledger hardware wallet earlier this year.

Security Researcher Ben Ma (I Ma), working for a hardware wallet manufacturer Shift Crypto, discovered vulnerability in the ColdCard hardware wallet. The attacker can make the ColdCard user send a real BTC transaction, While he thinks, that sends a transaction in the test network.

BTC transactions as in test, and in the main network "have the same transaction representation", – writes Ma in the blog Shift Crypto. The attacker can generate the transaction of the main bitcoin network for a hardware wallet, but make it similar to the transaction of the test network. This makes it difficult to recognize error by users.

Ma learned about vulnerability after, As an anonymous researcher, he discovered the so -called attack of the “circuit of insulation” in the Ledger hardware wallet. When the initial vulnerability was discovered, founder Coincite and creator Coldcard Rodolfo Novak (Rodolfo Novak) said:

“Coldcard does not support any “Shitkinov”, We count, that this is the best way ".

In his opinion, only BTC wallet will be safe, since vulnerability partly arose due to that, that Ledger wallets previously allowed to control different coins, using the same closed key. Since Coldcard does not support several coins, Theoretically, there should not be this problem in the wallet. However, the wallet can be used for transactions in the bitcoin test network and this opens a loophole for hackers.

If the user's computer is compromised, And his ColdCard wallet is unlocked and connected to this device, The attacker can make him send BTC to the main network instead of a transaction in the test network.

“The attacker just must convince the user to try the transaction in the test network, Applying any attack of social engineering. After that, How the user confirms the transaction of the test network, The attacker receives the BTC of the main network in the same volume ", – Writes Ma in the blog.

Since the attacker can fulfill this attack remotely, Vulnerability corresponds to the criteria of the critical problem Shift Crypto, which led to the need to disclose information. According to article, Ma revealed the vulnerability of Coincite 4 August, And Novak recognized its presence the next day. 23 November ColdCard released beta version
firmware to eliminate vulnerability.

Recall, that recently users of Ledger's wallets have lost
more 1 150 000 XRP, Having become victims of scammers, conducting phishing attacks and losing people on a fake site.