{"id":23094,"date":"2025-04-16T12:36:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/critical-vulnerability-found-in-bitcoin-wallet-chips\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T12:36:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:36:36","slug":"critical-vulnerability-found-in-bitcoin-wallet-chips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/critical-vulnerability-found-in-bitcoin-wallet-chips\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Vulnerability Found in Bitcoin Wallet Chips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A popular microcontroller used in billions of <span data-descr=\"Internet of Things\" class=\"old_tooltip\">IoT<\/span> devices and crypto wallets contains serious flaws that threaten bitcoin theft. This was reported by experts from <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptodeeptool.ru\/bitcoin-bluetooth-attacks\/\">Crypto Deep Tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability, identified as <a href=\"https:\/\/nvd.nist.gov\/vuln\/detail\/CVE-2025-27840\">CVE-2025-27840<\/a> in the <span data-descr=\"National Institute of Standards and Technology\" class=\"old_tooltip\">NIST<\/span> database, affects the ESP32 chip, used for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The bug allows attackers to permanently infect microcontrollers via updates, paving the way for future attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Once breached, attackers can unauthorizedly sign crypto transactions and remotely steal private keys.<\/p>\n<p>The microcontroller installed in hardware wallets like Blockstream Jade also has insufficient entropy in its pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) used for transaction signature creation. This allows attackers to guess key pairs through brute force.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-22-1.webp\" alt=\"image-22-1\" class=\"wp-image-256762\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bitcoin vulnerabilities in ESP32 and their potential consequences. Data: Crypto Deep Tech.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>During experiments, specialists tested potential attack vectors through the identified flaws. The implementation of scripts allowed them to:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>generate invalid private keys using PRNG weaknesses;<\/li>\n<li>forge bitcoin signatures due to incorrect hashing;<\/li>\n<li>extract private keys using small subgroup attacks and manipulation of cryptographic operations <span data-descr=\"Elliptic Curve Cryptography\" class=\"old_tooltip\">ECC<\/span>;\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>generate fake public keys by exploiting Y-coordinate ambiguity on the ECC curve.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In their research, Crypto Deep Tech experts used a real wallet containing 10 BTC.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cImplementing robust security mechanisms and regular security updates are key elements for ensuring secure and reliable operation of digital systems. The need to enhance security in devices and networks, such as ESP32, is becoming increasingly relevant,\u201d the specialists concluded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Back in March, hardware crypto wallet manufacturer Trezor <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ledger-identifies-vulnerability-in-trezor-wallets\">addressed a vulnerability<\/a> in the Safe 3 and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/trezor-unveils-new-hardware-wallet-safe-5\">Safe 5<\/a> models. The issue was related to the microcontroller used for cryptographic operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A popular microcontroller used in billions of IoT devices and crypto wallets contains serious flaws that threaten bitcoin theft. This was reported by experts from Crypto Deep Tech. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-27840 in the NIST database, affects the ESP32 chip, used for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The bug allows attackers to permanently infect microcontrollers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1301,1111,961],"class_list":["post-23094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-blockchain-vulnerabilities","tag-cybersecurity","tag-hardware-wallets"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"258","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}