Bitcoin Stack Exchange
Bitcoin Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [wallet-security]

How to keep wallets safe.

Questions about keeping one's Bitcoin wallet safe. Most attacks that steal Bitcoins involve gaining access to a victims wallet.dat file and password.

Note that questions about attacks against the Bitcoin protocol itself would go under the tag.

181 questions
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Is it safe to reuse a Bitcoin address?

Besides the obvious privacy implications, and (according to a bitcointalk.org forum post) the fact that once an address is used your coins that rest on it safety depend entirely on the ECDSA safety (as opposed to your coins being secure if at least…
Felipe
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What are the risks of using Strongcoin.com as an online wallet?

Strongcoin claims it is "The Safest way to store your Bitcoins. The only Bitcoin e-wallet service that's not vulnerable to security breaches. Your Bitcoin keys are encrypted in the browser." As I understand it, with their system your private keys…
Highly Irregular
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BIP32 recommends a 256 bit seed. Why do most Bitcoin wallets only use a 128 bit seed?

According to BIP32's "Master key generation" section, "256 bits is advised". See https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki#Master_key_generation Why did BIP32 consider 256 bits to be the recommended seed size, and why did the…
knaccc
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I'm new to Bitcoin, how do I keep my bitcoins secure?

With the recent rally and media attention, lots of new people joining the Bitcoin community. A lot are asking: I'm new to Bitcoin, how do I keep my bitcoins secure? and if they aren't that's the first thing you should teach them.
Murch
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How can Trezor update firmware but never receive malware?

I understood from What is it about a Trezor that means it can't be infected by malware? that a Trezor would only interpret data as transaction details, but the Trezor also updates firmware. How is it that an attacker can't hack the firmware update…
oks
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How can I manually (on paper) calculate a Bitcoin public key from a private key?

I am interested in generating a Bitcoin address by hand for security's sake. After I choose/generate a private key, how do I generate the public key? From there, how would I double check my work? Essentially, I am interested in not exposing my…
Peter Bergman
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What stops a wallet from stealing bitcoins?

I'm not particularly knowledgeable on the topic of cryptocurrencies so it's possible that I've missed something obvious, but I still wonder what it is that stops a wallet from stealing from you. Wallets contain your private keys and they obviously…
Standard
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Can a closed source wallet ever be completely trust-less?

Open source Bitcoin wallets are clearly in demand for obvious reasons. Users want to know what the code is intended to do and what may be possible. Is it even possible for closed source wallets to be completely trustless (meaning I do not need to…
Javier
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Should I share my seed phrase to earn airdrop tokens?

Someone on Face Book said I could earn free crypto by appying for an airdrop. He told me to download Blockchain from app store to my phone. I did this and created my account with a password. I also created my 12-word phrase. I was then told to go…
coiningandcombing
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Is it really safe to use vanitygen to generate your unique bitcoin address?

I've been wondering if using vanitygen to create your own bitcoin address with a unique prefix, is safe from being compromise by others? I'm currently using a shared wallet address from a trusted website and I'm targeting now to create my own…
Nikko Parin
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Alert Key Compromised, upgrade required

I just got this message: "Alert key compromised, upgrade required". How urgent is this? Am I in danger of losing my Bitcoin? What do I do?
dogbad
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What is the most secure operating system that I can use to store bitcoins without having to fear a hacker stealing them?

What is the most secure operating system that I can use to store bitcoins without having to fear a hacker stealing them?
user45048
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Which exchanges support U2F authentication?

I got myself a nice security key (Yubico Fido) today, which utilises the U2F protocol. But to my surprise not a single Bitcoin exchange seems to support this yet, only Google itself. So which Bitcoin exchanges (plan to) support U2F?
Maestro
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What did I do wrong that caused me to lose bitcoin?

I've been accumulating bitcoin into a paper wallet for a couple weeks. It's all been stolen. I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/193jdrxMKoUjWLyKm2UCGNXLGGvK1x3FDV I've been very careful with this…
sucks1717171
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Hardware wallet teardowns and side channel attacks

Most of the popular hardware wallets appear to be based on well established open source cryptography. Which hardware wallets have been submitted to extensive teardowns and side channel attack testing?
user22576
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