According to security firms related to digital currencies, warnings have been issued urging web browsers on their related wallet created from 2011 to 2015. They have warned that such old wallets need to transfer funds to new wallets that have been launched recently.
Hacking incidents, among other malicious activities, have flooded the crypto space, especially issues dealing with fraud, phishing, and malicious hacks.
Cybercrimes have been on the rise as the crypto world keeps developing. It’s evident that the evolving world of crypto has been a target for cybercriminals, and the recent $100 million hack from Poloniex has showcased another cybersecurity threat, as the digital world is still threatened to lose billions worth of crypto in hacking incidents.
Old wallets warning from cybersecurity firms
According to a news report on November 14, Uncipherd, a cybersecurity firm, reported its findings on vulnerability issues in old crypto wallets. The vulnerability is tagged as “Randstorm” and is claimed to affect millions of digital currency wallets. However, the malware seems to only affect old crypto wallets that were generated over a span of 4 years, from 2011.
Based on a post on X by Washington, “Today we release our work on Randstorm: a vulnerability affecting a significant number of browser-generated cryptocurrency wallets.”
Following market analysis, the firm struggled to retrieve Bitcoin old storage and discovered potential issues related to crypto wallets. This was from the BitcoinJS project and its derivatives. According to their report, about $2.1 billion in cryptocurrencies is at risk of hacking.
The BitcoinJS project stated, “The pure JavaScript Bitcoin library for node.js and browsers. A continued implementation of the original 0.1.3 version used by over a million wallet users; the backbone for almost all Bitcoin web wallets in production today.”
Additionally, the cybersecurity firm believes that various blockchain projects can be affected. These old storages holding bitcoin could be the first to showcase such vulnerabilities, but the company also highlights other digital currencies, such as Dogecoin, which is up and currently showing a $0.07 market price increase but a reduced percentage in its trading volume by 16.32% in the last 24 hours.
This is among the tokens showing market vulnerability. Other stablecoins that were explained to show implications from the hacking weaknesses include Zcash (ZEC) and Litecoon (LTC).
Uncipherd cybersecurity firm commented
The cybersecurity firm also commented that millions have already been alerted to the hacking potential issue based on these old digital coin storages launched from 2011 through 2015. The company recommended investors transfer their funds and commented:
If you are an individual who has generated a self-custody wallet using a web browser before 2016, you should consider moving your funds to a more recently created wallet generated by trusted software.
Uncipherd report
However, the company also noted that not all wallets will be affected in a similar way, as the vulnerability exploits different aspects of a digital currency. Regardless, the cybersecurity firm did not expose further details on the matter as the vulnerability was exploited.
They explained that the issues could be avoided if more info on the criminals is discovered. At the beginning of 2022, Unciphered pursued the customer work performance that was locked out of the blockchain.com Bitcoin wallet.
In a discovery amid examining the wallet as well as other revocation avenues of the locked crypto, the firm explained:
It is difficult to calculate the exact time frame for the vulnerability, but we have observed vulnerable wallets being generated from 2011-2015. We can confirm that this vulnerability is exploitable. However, the amount of work necessary to exploit wallets varies significantly and, in general, considerably increases over time.
That is to say, as a rule, impacted wallets generated in 2014 are substantially more difficult to attack than impacted wallets generated in 2012.
Uncipherd report
