Amid the growing popularity of hardware cryptocurrency walletsthe Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky has reminded users of the importance of using authentic cryptocurrency devices.
10th May, Stanislav Golovanov, Kaspersky cyber incident expert, reported of an issue with fake hardware wallets posing as major wallet company Trezor.
According to the blog post, the fake wallet allowed scammers to steal Bitcoin (BTC) via a substituted microcontroller, allowing attackers to gain control of the user private keys.
Apparently, the victim purchased a rigged hardware wallet posing as Trezor’s advanced Trezor Model T crypto wallet. The fake wallet appeared to be exactly the same as a genuine Trezor Model T wallet, providing a standard set of wallet features.
“When manipulating the wallet, nothing suspicious was perceived either: all functions worked as they should and the user interface did not differ from the original,” Golovanov wrote.
However, the fake wallet was tampered with from within. According to the Kaspersky team, the attackers gained access to users’ crypto assets by substituting internal firmware. “The actual mechanism of the theft remains unclear,” Golovanov said, adding that the problem was caused by a “typical supply chain attack.”
To prevent supply chain attacks, Kaspersky cybersecurity experts advised users to only purchase hardware wallets directly from the official vendor. The firm noted that the victim purchased the fake Trezor wallet through a “trusted seller through a popular classifieds website.”
Kaspersky did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request to comment exactly which scalper was involved in the incident.
The problem described by Kaspersky is not something new to the cryptocurrency community. In 2022, Trezor on board publicly publicly security incidents involving tampered Trezor Model T devices.
According to the Trezor blog post, the described issue was present mainly in Trezor Model T wallets, and all devices were obtained from sellers in the Russian market. The company wrote:
“Some internal components were replaced, allowing malicious actors to spoof device behavior and make its security features redundant.”
According to the official Trezor website, the company account currently with about 50 officially authorized dealers worldwide. Sellers are located in many jurisdictions, including countries such as Canada, the United States, Singapore, India, Israel, Belarus, and Ukraine, among others. According to the website, there are currently no authorized Trezor wallet resellers in Russia.
In addition to security measures related to the supply chain, Trezor also advise your users to follow the steps to authenticate their Trezor wallets, providing Official guides for the Model One and Model T.
The Trezor software also flags any potential firmware issues by alerting you to the issue on the app screen.
“We would like to point out that we have a warning system in the Trezor Suite that alerts users if their device is using an unofficial device,” a Trezor spokesperson told Cointelegraph.
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