Researchers access Bitcoin wallet blocked since 2013 and recover USD $3 million – DiarioBitcoin

The wallet created in 2013 was locked when the file storing the password was corrupted. The researchers managed to take advantage of a gap in the supplier, and found the key that allowed them to recover about 43.6 BTC.

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• One person had lost access to about 43.6 BTC hosted in a wallet since 2013
• The wallet became inaccessible after the file where it was stored was corrupted
• Researchers detected long-standing vulnerability in password manager
• By comparing it with other data, they managed to generate the correct key to access the funds

Although the cryptocurrency ecosystem is full of unfortunate stories, it is also possible to find the occasional anecdote with happy endings. This is what happened to a person who managed to regain access to a long-standing wallet, in which he had saved about 43.6 BTC now valued at almost USD $3 million today.

The unfortunate case of Michael

According to a report published by the media The Blockit is about a person nicknamed Michael, who created a wallet Bitcoin sometime in 2013 and used the password manager RoboForm to generate a unique access key. For security, he saved said password in an encrypted file, but it was corrupted, leaving him without access to the funds stored there.

Several years after what happened, Michael contacted Joe Grand, a computer engineer and streamer who specializes in hardware hacking, who along with a friend set to work to try to restore access to the funds in question. .

As such, Grand and his friend had some experience helping recover seemingly lost bitcoins, having once managed to gain access to a wallet. trezor and recover funds from the applicant.

Exploiting vulnerability in RoboForm

After carefully examining Michael’s testimony and the characteristics of the case, Grant and his friend got to work and began research to devise a mechanism with which to access the funds.

Analyzing the case, the investigators discovered that RoboFarm presented a vulnerability in the random number generator, which dated back to 2015 and was patched in subsequent updates. Based on the information provided by Michael, they intuited that the wallet password was generated between 2013 and 2014, so it could have been susceptible to said breach.

By collecting data from the wallet, they managed to specify a time window for the generation of the key, so they tested numerous passwords until they found the one created by Michael. The process resulted in obtaining a sequence originally created on May 15, 2013, with which access to the funds was restored, a process that was documented in a video uploaded to Grand’s channel today.

As a reward, Michael diverted a portion of the recovered bitcoins to Grand and his collaborator. He subsequently sold a small amount of assets and kept the 30 for himself. BTC remaining valued at almost USD $2 million.

Due to the feat, the medium Wired contacted Michael to learn more details about the case, and after confirming what happened, he revealed that he plans to keep his BTC remaining until each unit is priced above USD $100,000.

Article by Angel Di Matteo / DailyBitcoin

Picture of DiarioBitcoin, under free use license

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