Questions tagged [security]
This tag should be used for questions regarding security issues with the design or implementation of Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies.
827
questions
3
votes
2answers
451 views
Incoming transaction has been marked as pending since 2013. How can I retrieve it?
I requested BTC from someone back in 2013. Its been in pending status ever since. It has nearly 500,000 confirmations. The value of transaction when initiated was only $200 or so. Now the value is ...
1
vote
1answer
37 views
Crossing borders: security scheme ideas
More and more airports force you to decrypt your data, they will also dump your stuff keeping a backup. This could happen in just about any border you try to cross. It is only safe to expect this to ...
2
votes
1answer
37 views
What is the electrum bitcoin wallet password encryption method?
What method does Electrum bitcoin wallet use for password encryption?
I want to check to see if the file encrypted with the password is secure. And what are the ways around to decrypt it outside the ...
1
vote
1answer
76 views
What is threat model for Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is secure when 51% of the miners are honest.
We also need every node to have at least one honest peer to avoid eclipse attacks.
Are these the only assumptions based on which Bitcoin is secure? ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
Can dishonest miners spam fake blocks? [duplicate]
How, if at all, does bitcoin disincentivize spam blocks by adversarial/dishonest miners?
As I understand it, blocks are propagated throughout the network using a gossip protocol. If that's true, I ...
0
votes
1answer
27 views
Trezor Security
I'm not completely sure this is on topic. I apologize if it's not.
I have a 24-word seed stored (etched on metal) in my house. I continue to worry (just a little) that the metal might either fail to ...
0
votes
1answer
65 views
Are Satoshi's satoshis less secure than they should be?
So, Satoshi mined a bunch of BTC early on (but not in a "pre-mine" way), and has not moved them ever since.
Doesn't that mean that his coins thus uses the very earliest "format", ...
2
votes
1answer
123 views
CVE-2018-20586 and RPC AUTH
I was reading about CVE-2018-20586 which allowed injection of arbitrary data into the debug log via an RPC in https://medium.com/@lukedashjr/cve-2018-20586-disclosure-ff3e1ab9a21f
One thing that I ...
4
votes
1answer
68 views
Why is transaction pinning more of a concern at the commitment level rather than the HTLC level of Lightning?
In this week's IRC workshop on L2 onchain support t-bast and ariard agreed that transaction pinning is more of a concern at the commitment level (e.g. delaying the parent of a child CLTV transaction) ...
1
vote
1answer
61 views
Will the Bitcoin Network Security decrease after the last Bitcoin was mined? [duplicate]
As far as I understand Bitcoin mining the block reward consists of newly emitted and transaction fees. However, this new emission will disappear in the future and there will be only be the transaction ...
3
votes
2answers
94 views
Can ACINQ (Phoenix wallet peer) steal my funds during a recovery?
Phoenix wallet is a unique Lightning wallet in that, among other things, it allows the user to restore channels by simply entering their seed. According to ACINQ's blogpost, this is how they achieve ...
0
votes
1answer
56 views
Process to get started with bitcoin for beginners [duplicate]
I'm new to all the crypto stuff, and I spent some time reading about it to get familiar with it, and now I'd like to start the experience, though I'd first like to have some feedback about whether I ...
0
votes
0answers
32 views
Which app generates stronger mnemonic seed?
Mnemonic phrase, mnemonic seed, or seed phrase are defined as a secret group of words that represent a wallet. When used in sequence they allow access to the cryptocurrencies stored within.
“Mnemonic” ...
5
votes
2answers
517 views
What exactly is “privatekeys.pw”?
Today, I stumbled upon this bizarre website: https://privatekeys.pw/
Bitcoin Private Keys Directory
The FAQ makes no sense at all and doesn't explain what it is about whatsoever.
What could they be ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
How can I be sure that anyone (i.e miner) will not change outputs from transaction? [duplicate]
I am wondering if ie. miner cannot change outputs from transaction. We have example of transaction:
{
"version": 1,
"locktime": 0,
"vin": [
{
"txid":
&...
0
votes
1answer
114 views
Can an attacker flood the Bitcoin network with fake transactions?
We are in 2050. People show an ever-growing distrust in the global banking system and start transitioning to only using Bitcoin: most companies accept it as a form of payment, and people settle their ...
18
votes
7answers
7k views
How can government “seize” bitcoins?
Last year the U.S. Department of Justice posted this press release claiming U.S. "law enforcement seized several thousand Bitcoins on November 3, 2020."
How is it possible for anyone to &...
0
votes
1answer
62 views
Orderly Transition Away from ECC? Or Bitcoin to zero?
Let's say asymmetric public key cryptography is wide open, and can be broken using a public key or the signature. Namely, that I can determine the private key using the information revealed in a ...
0
votes
1answer
31 views
Did pools verify constantly the ouput of createrawtransaction when they build their coinbase transaction?
Pools creates their own coinbase transaction to pay their selves, and they begin the PoW by hashing different Headers, what prevent a hacker from changing the createrawtransaction with different ...
4
votes
1answer
118 views
When you make a Bitcoin transaction, can the receiving person (and the world?) really see how much coins you have in the entire wallet?
I really hope that I've got this horribly wrong, but I have to ask...
I have this idea, which I base on comments and explanations I've heard over the years, that when you make a Bitcoin transaction, ...
7
votes
1answer
2k views
Should I be worried that bitcoincore.org now suddenly only provides an “unsigned” Bitcoin Core installer?
My security script for downloading and verifying new versions of Bitcoin Core barked at me the other day, when the new v0.21.1 was released. (Which still is nowhere to be found on bitcoin.org, BTW.)
...
0
votes
1answer
38 views
Newbie question about the security of mixing
If I am running my own node, and using a mixer to anonymize my BTC, will it not be connected anyway because the transactions are to/from my own node?
I mean I am sending the BTC to the mixer from my ...
0
votes
1answer
70 views
Multisig Setup - Pruned Bitcoin Core on Computer vs. Dedicated Hardware
Are there security implications of running a pruned Bitcoin Core node on a personal computer vs. a full Bitcoin Core node on a dedicated hardware device (i.e. Raspberry Pie with Umbrel, myNode, nodl, ...
-2
votes
1answer
41 views
Multisig Wallet Setup - Security Tradeoffs With Pruned Bitcoin Core Node?
What are the security tradeoffs of running a pruned Bitcoin Core node for a multisig wallet, such as Specter?
It seems that using a multisig wallet with a pruned Bitcoin Core node could be a good ...
0
votes
0answers
51 views
Secure Bitcoin Core [duplicate]
For example, take two PC (online, offline) with the last Bitcoin Core.
Online PC has only public keys and the updated blockchain. It will use to watching for balance and create and send transactions.
...
0
votes
1answer
49 views
How do nodes contribute to security when the power comes from mining and what is the chain of transaction validation?
Blockchain security comes from the decentralisation of hashing power by miners. They append transactions to a block, perform PoW and add them to the blockchain when that validate blocks. How do nodes ...
0
votes
1answer
93 views
Why do people claim that governments cannot confiscate Bitcoins?
Let's say that I practice impeccable data security processes using dedicated devices, encryption, and no clear-text backups. Even if they cannot find all of my backups, this doesn't protect me from ...
0
votes
2answers
94 views
Is brute forcing a private key with unspent coins getting easier?
Is the likelihood of correctly guessing a private key with unspent coins increasing due to:
More addresses being used resulting in more private keys with unspent coins (i.e. higher chance that a ...
1
vote
0answers
34 views
Why bother with 'account' in derivation path?
After lots of wallet testing, I'm thinking that only account level 0 should be used. Especially, when you consider restoring a wallet from the seed phrase.
m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / ...
0
votes
1answer
59 views
If Cryptocurrency offers anonymity, why is it considered by forensic professionals to be the best currency for fighting illicit transactions?
A paper by titled An Analysis of Bitcoin’s Use in Illicit Finance discusses how Cryptocurrency is considered by forensic professionals to be the best currency for fighting illicit transactions. In ...
0
votes
2answers
47 views
Storing private keys in cloud providers enviroment variables
Is it ok to store private keys in cloud provider (such as AWS, Firebase) secrets (enviroment variables) in cloud functions (such as lambdas or firebase cloud functions)?
I understand I would be ...
0
votes
0answers
50 views
How many hops does Coinbase and other exchanges track your movement of BTC when it leaves their exchanges?
I've read reports of Coinbase users getting an email stating that they detected their Bitcoins being moved to an unapproved exchange or site after removing their bitcoins off of the exchange. What is ...
-1
votes
1answer
50 views
BTC on blockchain
I see my Wallet address on the Blockchain but it says spent and what does that mean? It did not arrive to the wallet i sent it too! I need it to be located and returned or sent to the wallet i gave.
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Is it actually possible to secure your coins while also allowing access to “near and dear” when you die?
I have my wallet.dat files encrypted, stored on a computer which in turn is encrypted. All storage devices where the files are backed up to are also encrypted. I strongly doubt that any human could ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
Address reuse, cold storage and private keys [duplicate]
I was going through some old posts regarding address reuse and came across a few remarks I wasn't aware of, and want to make sure I understood correctly.
I knew address reuse wasn't the best for ...
2
votes
3answers
204 views
Energy cost of bitcoin vs physical currency?
The bitcoin mining infrastructure uses a certain amount of energy and processing power to operate.
The resource usage is often cited as part of arguments critical of bitcoin.
But relatively speaking ...
1
vote
1answer
59 views
How are malicious forks resolved?
I understand that forks are resolved by opting in for the eventual longest chain, preferring the chain with the longest POW. But everything I read on this suggests it's just random chance or that the ...
3
votes
2answers
138 views
Why do people apparently “look up Bitcoin addresses on websites”?
I often hear things such as:
Remember, if you look up an address on Blockchain.info or something, they will have a record of your IP address being interested in that address and thus associate it ...
1
vote
2answers
60 views
What prevent someone to not use the receiver address of one transaction as the sender in another one?
Title may be confusing you, and to be honest I am also confused how things work and I am new to this crypto world so sorry in advance if I am not using the correct words.
I try to explain :
Let say ...
0
votes
0answers
50 views
Bitcoin Core Security
Is there any site or resource where I can learn how to do security transactions while trading on bitcoin testnet
1
vote
1answer
118 views
Why is it impossible to get a straight answer as to whether Bitcoin is anonymous or not?
Yesterday, I asked a question which got linked to this answer: Is it true that all the bitcoins in existence are on the blockchain (the ledge), but it just depends on who the owner (address) is?
...
1
vote
1answer
28 views
What would stop some major company from blacklisting specific Bitcoins based on the “inputs” used and their “origins”?
I remember news about some exchange actually banning users based on some kind of "reputation score" on the inputs/coin parts they controlled/used, or got Bitcoin sent to them from. So even ...
1
vote
1answer
71 views
Changing bitcoin core password
Let's say I have 5 copies of my .dat file on individual flash drives. I download the blockchain and run a full node and have the core wallet. I copy my .dat file into bitcoin core. I type in the old ...
4
votes
1answer
93 views
Are “coin mixers” actually a real thing? Can they be trusted?
Ever since I started hearing about Bitcoin, people have been mentioning "coin mixers" to me, and told me to use them. However, even early on, when they were practically throwing away ...
1
vote
1answer
34 views
Are there any privacy benefits in using a separate wallet in Bitcoin Core to separate myself from my service?
I currently run Bitcoin Core with the following wallets loaded in:
hot.dat. Contains the smallest possible sum of Bitcoin. Unencrypted and used by myself for various personal Bitcoin purchases, and I ...
0
votes
1answer
56 views
Someon offered me btc mine trough his mining device
Someone from the social network offered me a btc mine through his mining device. He asked me for an email address so he could create a mining wallet address for me. I gave it to him. I don't know what ...
0
votes
0answers
34 views
Are there any privacy benefits in using a separate wallet in Bitcoin Core to “separate” myself from my service?
I currently run Bitcoin Core with the following wallets loaded in:
hot.dat. Contains the smallest possible sum of Bitcoin. Unencrypted and used by myself for various personal Bitcoin purchases, and I ...
0
votes
1answer
49 views
Why is SHA-256 mining secure?
My understanding is the when you are mining bitcoin you are looking for a string, or maybe a binary number (a) such that if you 'add' a to the block (b) you get a number (c) whose hash begins with a ...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
Is there a way to tell that our bitcoin is safe after we put it in a hardware wallet for cold storage after 3 or 5 years?
If I consolidated 1 bitcoin into an address using a hardware wallet, and put it in cold storage. Can I know after 3 to 5 years that the bitcoin is safe?
So far the research I have is: can I go to ...
0
votes
1answer
32 views
Is our hardware wallet safe if the PC or Mac has 3rd party apps?
For example, our PC or Mac might have 3rd party apps installed, such as Pixelmator, GIMP, or VLC player. They are usually considered to be safe apps.
However, is it true that when using a hardware ...
