Bitcoin advocate cracks known 12-word seed phrase in minutes
If the words of a 12-word seed phrase are known, it’s deceptively easy to enter the wallet and sweep the funds. A systems architect cracked a seed phrase and won a 100,000 Satoshi bounty, or 0.001 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $29, in just under half an hour. Cointelegraph spoke to Andrew Fraser in Boston, who underscored how critical it is to keep a Bitcoin wallet seed phrase secure and offline. A seed phrase or recovery phrase is a string of random words generated when a wallet is created that can access the wallet, similar to a master key. Fraser brute forced a 12-word seed phrase that Bitcoin educator “Wicked Bitcoin” shared on Twitter: Anyone want to try and brute force this 12-word seed phrase securing 100,000 sats? I’ll give you all 12 words but in no particular order. Standard derivation path m/84'/0'/0'…no fancy tricks. GL.https://t.co/c9FyMv3HYM pic.twitter.com/nPGTB9bX2g — Wicked (@w_s_bitcoin) April 26, 2023 As shown, Wicked’s Tweet challenged users to decipher ...