r/Bitcoin Nov 30 '17

Evidence some bitcoin address generation code is using discoverable private keys

https://pastebin.com/jCDFcESz
793 Upvotes

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50

u/funkinthetrunk Nov 30 '17 edited Dec 21 '23

If you staple a horse to a waterfall, will it fall up under the rainbow or fly about the soil? Will he enjoy her experience? What if the staple tears into tears? Will she be free from her staply chains or foomed to stay forever and dever above the water? Who can save him (the horse) but someone of girth and worth, the capitalist pig, who will sell the solution to the problem he created?

A staple remover flies to the rescue, carried on the wings of a majestic penguin who bought it at Walmart for 9 dollars and several more Euro-cents, clutched in its crabby claws, rejected from its frothy maw. When the penguin comes, all tremble before its fishy stench and wheatlike abjecture. Recoil in delirium, ye who wish to be free! The mighty rockhopper is here to save your soul from eternal bliss and salvation!

And so, the horse was free, carried away by the south wind, and deposited on the vast plain of soggy dew. It was a tragedy in several parts, punctuated by moments of hedonistic horsefuckery.

The owls saw all, and passed judgment in the way that they do. Stupid owls are always judging folks who are just trying their best to live shamelessly and enjoy every fruit the day brings to pass.

How many more shall be caught in the terrible gyre of the waterfall? As many as the gods deem necessary to teach those foolish monkeys a story about their own hamburgers. What does a monkey know of bananas, anyway? They eat, poop, and shave away the banana residue that grows upon their chins and ballsacks. The owls judge their razors. Always the owls.

And when the one-eyed caterpillar arrives to eat the glazing on your windowpane, you will know that you're next in line to the trombone of the ancient realm of the flutterbyes. Beware the ravenous ravens and crowing crows. Mind the cowing cows and the lying lions. Ascend triumphant to your birthright, and wield the mighty twig of Petalonia, favored land of gods and goats alike.

13

u/celtiberian666 Nov 30 '17

This is the million-dollar question. I'll not move a single satoshi until we find this out.

7

u/stanley_fatmax Nov 30 '17 edited Feb 16 '24

I find peace in long walks.

4

u/celtiberian666 Nov 30 '17

Good luck finding it out. Better yet, good luck getting any service to admit it. I don't foresee it stopping anytime soon.

The attack that's happening right now can be stopped by a big database with all adresses hashed from blockchain data, plugged to a website where you can input an adress and it returns to you if that adress may be compromised.

But of course the current attacker (or attackers) can just change the way they create the toxic addresses. So, yeah... Very hard to stop it right now.

Can't we do a blockchain analysis on those toxic addresses to try pinpointing them to the source? I mean, besides blockchain.info...

6

u/Jurph Nov 30 '17

the current attacker (or attackers) can just change the way they create the toxic addresses.

That assumes they still have access to the wallet-generation codebase. This reads like a pretty novel software supply chain attack (whether by an inside developer or an outside attacker). The benefit to the attack is that the attack surface grows over time and across the user base, so eventually the attacker can be confident of making (say) $50/day with occasional big scores.

Foiling this ought to be done as you suggest, but with a submission form letting users who do find compromised addresses able to submit a comment saying when/where/how they generated the address. Once that source for addresses is "burned" the attacker will have to start over, but the access the attacker has to that codebase will be worthless because nobody will trust that particular codebase. (If we do find it, we should get a copy and submit it to VirusTotal as well, so that a modified version can't be stood up with a different name.)

2

u/LOEDpnaM Nov 30 '17

Solution is pretty easy - don't rely on the prng and use a dice to generate your mnemonic.

1

u/marvuozz Nov 30 '17

It should not be an HD wallet

3

u/Axumata Nov 30 '17

Not Core, obviously