John McAfee’s ‘unhackable’ crypto-wallet presumably hacked a week after obstacle

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John McAfee disagrees about what makes up a legitimate hack.


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Someone declares to have actually effectively hacked an “unhackable” cryptocurrency wallet.

A self-described IT geek in the Netherlands who passes @OverSoftNL on Twitter tweeted Wednesday about getting root access to a crypto-wallet, which antivirus software application leader John McAfee and hardware crypto-wallet maker Bitfi stated had “absolute” security

Last week, McAfee stated he ‘d participated in a collaboration with Bitfi to use a $100,000 bounty to anybody that might hack a Bitfi wallet. The bounty was later on raised to $250,000 Participation in the obstacle needed the purchase of a $120 Bitfi wallet, preloaded with cryptocurrency.

“Short update without going into too much detail about BitFi: We have root access, a patched firmware and can confirm the BitFi wallet still connect happily to the dashboard,” @OverSo ftNL tweeted “There are NO checks in place to prevent that like claimed by BitFi.”

Root gain access to offered @OverSo ftNL a method into the wallet’s root folder directory site, which permitted tweaking its backend, according to The NextWe b. McAfee disagreed that root gain access to makes up a hack.

“Root acces (sic) to a device with no write or modify capability. That’s as useless as a dentist license un (sic) a nuclear power plant,” McAfee tweetedThursday “Can you get the money on the wallet? No. That’s what matters.”

@OverSo ftNL stated the capability to get root gain access to indicated the wallet wasn’t secure and dismissed the first bounty as a “sham,” adding Friday that Bitfi does not “even have $250k free on hand at this moment.”

Bitfi, who didn’t instantly react to an ask for remark, likewise provided a 2nd, $10,000 bounty with a plea for assistance.

“Dear friends, we’re announcing second bounty to help us assist potential security weaknesses of the Bitfi device. We would greatly appreciate assistance from the infosec community, we need help,” tweeted CEO Daniel Khesin.

He stated the $10,000 bounty– which does not seem connected with McAfee– was indicated to imitate a situation in which a user’s gadget has actually been taken, customized and returned.

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