← Back to context

Comment by refulgentis

17 days ago

I don't know coin stuff, but if top comment's...

"We're talking here about a tiny eSIM implant and a little CPU doing OCR on the fonts appearing on the hardware wallet's screen to read the secrets during set up. So the secure element ain't tampered with."

...is accurate...it's one of the rare times I'd agree there's nothing they can do. And I was all prepared to storm in here saying "convenient excuse!"

>there's nothing they can do

The device should have bricked itself after someone opened it up to put hidden stuff inside. Also showing the key phrase to the user instead of keeping it secret to the secure element is a questionable decision.

  • people do need the option to repair devices, especially when they contain valuable information, so I don't see an automatic bricking to be a reasonable solution

    • The word for crypto device self destruction military guys use is zeroize. It can be triggered manually or automatically. A zeroized device can be repaired and signed off by a trusted person, then a new key loaded by another person.

      Maybe these devices could ship in a tamper-detection-only mode, then detection triggered by user to be inspected by the user, then factory installed firmware wiped and reloaded if desired, have user key loaded to the firmware, and the shell sealed back up with electronic and physical detection enabled.

    • There's a medium. Something ironically close to apple's 'non fully approved and supply chained repair' thing (especially when we consider the case of a screen that could be OCRing data and tossing it out later).

      'You have unexpected components. You may want to have your device inspected or risking compromise of x/y/z. Should we continue or lock it down'?

    • I would love to know if I can use one of this to get unlimited data worldwide.

      Jokes aside, keystone wallets are air gapped. And not air gapped but awesome the lesser known but imo best of all, gridplus lattice1.

      Heck, even a trezor, despite their mail provider being hacked, is better.

      I, however, dont endorse the iPhone idea.

      Just don’t buy ledger, terrible company. Many of my friends are getting endless spam because of them. The key backup is a disaster after they promised it was not possible to retrieve it. Their software stack is closed source.

      This is imo the last nail in the coffin for them. They should refund all the money lost, and issue a worldwide recall.

      Lots to hate about them.

      4 replies →

  • > showing the key phrase to the user instead of keeping it secret to the secure element is a questionable decision.

    It's not, you need to write it down for backup and recovery.