COLDCARD RNG incident the public record, collected and explained
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r/Bitcoin: Ledger's article on the incident and its own security model

reddit-ledger-article-relay

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1vem0e3/ledger_article_on_the_coldcard_incident_and_why/

Latest reviewed change

source content difference between and

A participant comment was deleted and replaced with a [removed] marker.

seen +2 -8 full history below
 
 comment: p1idxgk
 parent: t3_1vem0e3
-author: 2shyofa3sum
+author: [deleted]
 created_utc: 1785786076
 edited: false
 body:

First lines only. The complete diff is in the timeline below.

Organisation
reddit
Evidence role
Community discussion
Published
not established
Source changes
4
Detected differences
4
Unreviewed
0
Copies held
5

Every check is recorded, including checks that found no text change. A detected edit is therefore bounded between two checks. The publisher's exact save time is not observable from this record. Last checked .

  1. source content difference between and Current source content +2 -8

    A participant comment was deleted and replaced with a [removed] marker.

    seen · Captured here 12,205 chars
    What changed from the previous capture 10 lines
     
     comment: p1idxgk
     parent: t3_1vem0e3
    -author: 2shyofa3sum
    +author: [deleted]
     created_utc: 1785786076
     edited: false
     body:
    -Still safe?
    -
    -Unless they leak their customer database. 
    -
    -Or they reveal they can help you out if you lose your seed (because they always had a backdoor that all the "experts" didn't even know about).
    -
    -But sure, trust them with your bags.
    +[removed]
     
     comment: p1iejxt
     parent: t1_p1idxgk
    
    Extracted text as captured
    post: 1vem0e3
    author: jonathansj
    created_utc: 1785782418
    title: Ledger article on the Coldcard incident and why ledger is still safe
    body:
    Link: https://www.ledger.com/blog-coldcard-incident
    
    **TL;DR**  
    Ledger explains that the recent Coldcard incident was caused by a **firmware bug that weakened the randomness used to generate recovery seeds**, making some seed phrases predictable to attackers. 
    
    **Updating the firmware alone is not enough** if your wallet was initialized with affected firmware. Users must **generate a brand-new seed phrase and move their funds** to a new wallet. Reusing the old seed on another device does not fix the issue.   
    Ledger says this vulnerability is **specific to the affected Coldcard firmware** and does **not** affect Ledger devices. 
    
    The incident is a reminder that **secure seed generation is critical** for any hardware wallet, and users should keep firmware up to date and follow good security practices. 
    
    comment: p1i0i4v
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: The_Bitcoin_Act
    created_utc: 1785782577
    edited: false
    body:
    Interesting!
    
    comment: p1i19rz
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: goatanuss
    created_utc: 1785782776
    edited: false
    body:
    This is hilarious. I remember when that news came out that ledger was going to let you extract your private keys or share it or something, this subreddit lost their damn minds and it was like thread after thread after thread about people saying ledger was shit and insecure and if you’re smart move to coldcard.
    
    I bought one at that time but never actually moved my crypto to it. Glad I didn’t
    
    comment: p1i21p1
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: angelwolf71885
    created_utc: 1785782976
    edited: false
    body:
    Funny coming from the company that can recover your seed phrase if you “ forget “ your seed phrase 

    Excerpt only. The complete copy is held offline and backs quotations on this site. The original publication remains the canonical public source.

  2. source content difference between and source content +10 -0

    New comment by BruceLee2112 asking what the current go-to wallet is, in reply to a comment speculating about Ledger as cover.

    seen · Captured here 12,435 chars
    What changed from the previous capture 10 lines
     edited: false
     body:
     This might be cover from Ledger. The situation can be a person migrating weak CC keys directly to a Ledger device, without generating new keys.  Next thing you know everything blows up on Ledger for the same people losing their stash. 
    +
    +comment: p22dixu
    +parent: t1_p1i6afu
    +author: BruceLee2112
    +created_utc: 1786026033
    +edited: false
    +body:
    +what is the current go to?
    +
    +
    
    Extracted text as captured
    post: 1vem0e3
    author: jonathansj
    created_utc: 1785782418
    title: Ledger article on the Coldcard incident and why ledger is still safe
    body:
    Link: https://www.ledger.com/blog-coldcard-incident
    
    **TL;DR**  
    Ledger explains that the recent Coldcard incident was caused by a **firmware bug that weakened the randomness used to generate recovery seeds**, making some seed phrases predictable to attackers. 
    
    **Updating the firmware alone is not enough** if your wallet was initialized with affected firmware. Users must **generate a brand-new seed phrase and move their funds** to a new wallet. Reusing the old seed on another device does not fix the issue.   
    Ledger says this vulnerability is **specific to the affected Coldcard firmware** and does **not** affect Ledger devices. 
    
    The incident is a reminder that **secure seed generation is critical** for any hardware wallet, and users should keep firmware up to date and follow good security practices. 
    
    comment: p1i0i4v
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: The_Bitcoin_Act
    created_utc: 1785782577
    edited: false
    body:
    Interesting!
    
    comment: p1i19rz
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: goatanuss
    created_utc: 1785782776
    edited: false
    body:
    This is hilarious. I remember when that news came out that ledger was going to let you extract your private keys or share it or something, this subreddit lost their damn minds and it was like thread after thread after thread about people saying ledger was shit and insecure and if you’re smart move to coldcard.
    
    I bought one at that time but never actually moved my crypto to it. Glad I didn’t
    
    comment: p1i21p1
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: angelwolf71885
    created_utc: 1785782976
    edited: false
    body:
    Funny coming from the company that can recover your seed phrase if you “ forget “ your seed phrase 

    Excerpt only. The complete copy is held offline and backs quotations on this site. The original publication remains the canonical public source.

  3. source content difference between and source content +0 -30

    Three comments were removed, including claims about Ledger's secure element and seed export, and a statement about open-source code and backdoors.

    seen · Captured here 12,304 chars
    What changed from the previous capture 30 lines
     body:
     passphrase with high entropy. Pass phrases with low entropy are already being drained
     
    -comment: p1jvn6t
    -parent: t1_p1iyq5t
    -author: SideOk1317
    -created_utc: 1785801417
    -edited: false
    -body:
    -you didn't lose money though 
    -
    -comment: p1k1inn
    -parent: t1_p1i33zu
    -author: OldHamburger7923
    -created_utc: 1785803318
    -edited: false
    -body:
    -The current issue doesn't mean the previous complaint isn't valid and justified. 
    -
    -Also the secure element is closed source so you can't know if there is a backdoor in their implementation. 
    -
    -Remember the secure element was supposed to prevent seed export then we found out it can export the seed, to the cloud no less.
    -
    -Only thing op proves is that people are boneheads.
    -
    -comment: p1k1yi1
    -parent: t1_p1iqhnm
    -author: OldHamburger7923
    -created_utc: 1785803461
    -edited: false
    -body:
    -Open source doesn't guarantee exploit and bug free. But it does mean backdoors are less easy/likely since any code change is in public view.
    -
     comment: p1kgpvw
     parent: t1_p1iqhnm
     author: TheSlame
    
    Extracted text as captured
    post: 1vem0e3
    author: jonathansj
    created_utc: 1785782418
    title: Ledger article on the Coldcard incident and why ledger is still safe
    body:
    Link: https://www.ledger.com/blog-coldcard-incident
    
    **TL;DR**  
    Ledger explains that the recent Coldcard incident was caused by a **firmware bug that weakened the randomness used to generate recovery seeds**, making some seed phrases predictable to attackers. 
    
    **Updating the firmware alone is not enough** if your wallet was initialized with affected firmware. Users must **generate a brand-new seed phrase and move their funds** to a new wallet. Reusing the old seed on another device does not fix the issue.   
    Ledger says this vulnerability is **specific to the affected Coldcard firmware** and does **not** affect Ledger devices. 
    
    The incident is a reminder that **secure seed generation is critical** for any hardware wallet, and users should keep firmware up to date and follow good security practices. 
    
    comment: p1i0i4v
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: The_Bitcoin_Act
    created_utc: 1785782577
    edited: false
    body:
    Interesting!
    
    comment: p1i19rz
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: goatanuss
    created_utc: 1785782776
    edited: false
    body:
    This is hilarious. I remember when that news came out that ledger was going to let you extract your private keys or share it or something, this subreddit lost their damn minds and it was like thread after thread after thread about people saying ledger was shit and insecure and if you’re smart move to coldcard.
    
    I bought one at that time but never actually moved my crypto to it. Glad I didn’t
    
    comment: p1i21p1
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: angelwolf71885
    created_utc: 1785782976
    edited: false
    body:
    Funny coming from the company that can recover your seed phrase if you “ forget “ your seed phrase 

    Excerpt only. The complete copy is held offline and backs quotations on this site. The original publication remains the canonical public source.

  4. source content difference between and source content +8 -0

    1 new Reddit comment was posted, including omsriver.

    seen · Captured here 13,159 chars
    What changed from the previous capture 8 lines
     edited: false
     body:
     why dont they just use electrum? curious here
    +
    +comment: p1n6559
    +parent: t3_1vem0e3
    +author: omsriver
    +created_utc: 1785848730
    +edited: false
    +body:
    +This might be cover from Ledger. The situation can be a person migrating weak CC keys directly to a Ledger device, without generating new keys.  Next thing you know everything blows up on Ledger for the same people losing their stash. 
    
    Extracted text as captured
    post: 1vem0e3
    author: jonathansj
    created_utc: 1785782418
    title: Ledger article on the Coldcard incident and why ledger is still safe
    body:
    Link: https://www.ledger.com/blog-coldcard-incident
    
    **TL;DR**  
    Ledger explains that the recent Coldcard incident was caused by a **firmware bug that weakened the randomness used to generate recovery seeds**, making some seed phrases predictable to attackers. 
    
    **Updating the firmware alone is not enough** if your wallet was initialized with affected firmware. Users must **generate a brand-new seed phrase and move their funds** to a new wallet. Reusing the old seed on another device does not fix the issue.   
    Ledger says this vulnerability is **specific to the affected Coldcard firmware** and does **not** affect Ledger devices. 
    
    The incident is a reminder that **secure seed generation is critical** for any hardware wallet, and users should keep firmware up to date and follow good security practices. 
    
    comment: p1i0i4v
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: The_Bitcoin_Act
    created_utc: 1785782577
    edited: false
    body:
    Interesting!
    
    comment: p1i19rz
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: goatanuss
    created_utc: 1785782776
    edited: false
    body:
    This is hilarious. I remember when that news came out that ledger was going to let you extract your private keys or share it or something, this subreddit lost their damn minds and it was like thread after thread after thread about people saying ledger was shit and insecure and if you’re smart move to coldcard.
    
    I bought one at that time but never actually moved my crypto to it. Glad I didn’t
    
    comment: p1i21p1
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: angelwolf71885
    created_utc: 1785782976
    edited: false
    body:
    Funny coming from the company that can recover your seed phrase if you “ forget “ your seed phrase 

    Excerpt only. The complete copy is held offline and backs quotations on this site. The original publication remains the canonical public source.

  5. Earliest copy held
    seen · Captured here 12,825 chars
    Extracted text as captured
    post: 1vem0e3
    author: jonathansj
    created_utc: 1785782418
    title: Ledger article on the Coldcard incident and why ledger is still safe
    body:
    Link: https://www.ledger.com/blog-coldcard-incident
    
    **TL;DR**  
    Ledger explains that the recent Coldcard incident was caused by a **firmware bug that weakened the randomness used to generate recovery seeds**, making some seed phrases predictable to attackers. 
    
    **Updating the firmware alone is not enough** if your wallet was initialized with affected firmware. Users must **generate a brand-new seed phrase and move their funds** to a new wallet. Reusing the old seed on another device does not fix the issue.   
    Ledger says this vulnerability is **specific to the affected Coldcard firmware** and does **not** affect Ledger devices. 
    
    The incident is a reminder that **secure seed generation is critical** for any hardware wallet, and users should keep firmware up to date and follow good security practices. 
    
    comment: p1i0i4v
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: The_Bitcoin_Act
    created_utc: 1785782577
    edited: false
    body:
    Interesting!
    
    comment: p1i19rz
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: goatanuss
    created_utc: 1785782776
    edited: false
    body:
    This is hilarious. I remember when that news came out that ledger was going to let you extract your private keys or share it or something, this subreddit lost their damn minds and it was like thread after thread after thread about people saying ledger was shit and insecure and if you’re smart move to coldcard.
    
    I bought one at that time but never actually moved my crypto to it. Glad I didn’t
    
    comment: p1i21p1
    parent: t3_1vem0e3
    author: angelwolf71885
    created_utc: 1785782976
    edited: false
    body:
    Funny coming from the company that can recover your seed phrase if you “ forget “ your seed phrase 

    Excerpt only. The complete copy is held offline and backs quotations on this site. The original publication remains the canonical public source.

How to check this yourself

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