2,000 Private Keys Stolen in Edge Wallet Security Exploit

Vulnerability, which has now been patched by Edge crypto wallet allowed attackers to steal thousands of dollars from private keys.

A hand offering a key to a man holding a bow.
  • A security breach at Edge Wallet has led to over 2,000 crypto private keys of been compromised.
  • Edge reports that not all funds were stolen from all the wallets, and only a total of “low five figures in USD” has been identified.
  • The Edge Wallet team has fixed the vulnerability, releasing an updated app to keep private keys safe. 

Edge, a multi-currency mobile crypto wallet, has suffered a security incident, with the attacker gaining unauthorized access to 2,000 private keys and steading “low five figures in USD” in the process. 

Edge, the non-custodial wallet that operates on a decentralized server architecture, has announced that it discovered the security breach on February 20th after a user reported an unauthorized transaction on their wallet.

The user reported that the full amount of their Bitcoin wallet was stolen in the transaction. However, the other assets in the wallets remained untouched. 

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After investigations, Edge explained that the attacker did not log into the affected user’s account to perform the transaction. The attacker reportedly accessed the individual master private key for the Bitcoin wallet.

Thousands Stolen in the Security Breach

Edge explains that the exploiter accessed 2,000 unencrypted private keys (0.01% of the approximate total keys created on the Edge platform) on the Edge logs server using this vulnerability. 

Edge adds that the team has received very few mentions of missing funds and that some affected wallets still hold their assets. However, losses at the time of the report were estimated to be “announcing to low five figures in USD.”

Edge Takes Immediate Action 

On February 22nd, Edge announced that the vulnerability had been fixed, urging users to update to the latest version of Edge (v3.3.1). The latest wallet update also deletes all prior logs off the disk to prevent further losses. 

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In addition, Edge has advised that users create new wallets in their existing accounts for more security. Users don’t need to create new accounts to get a new wallet which closes every exposure to the vulnerabilities involving its private key.

Crypto Attackers Turning to Crypto Wallets?

The attack on Edge Wallet adds to the worrying trend of crypto hacks and exploits. In 2022, more than $3.9 billion was stolen from projects, making it the worst year for crypto hacks. 

Crypto wallets are increasingly getting attacked, with Trust Wallet suffering a $4 million social engineering hack early this year. In December 2022, BitKeep lost over $8 million as the crypto wallet fell to an exploit.

Edge wallet was also criticized after being forced to put its Bitcoin Mastercard ‘on hold’ in June 2022 after the payment giant denied involvement with the company.

On the Flipside

  • In reaction to the trend of hacks, many companies are dedicated to recovering lost crypto funds by auditing code and finding vulnerabilities in wallets.

Why You Should Care

The costliness of errors, so often exposed by hacks and exploits of crypto platforms, continues to impose itself as one of the major downfalls of the sector.

Read more on the attacks on crypto wallets in:

BitKeep Wallet Suffers Second Hack Since October, $8 Million Stolen via Infected APKs

Bitcoin Core Developer Raises Alarm Over Self-Custody Wallets After Losing BTC to a Hack

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Author
Milko Trajcevski

Milko Trajcevski is a DailyCoin news reporter, mainly focused on Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), and their founders (Vitalik Buterin and Charles Hoskinson). Milko is an avid follower of crypto and blockchain technology and has written thousands of articles on the subjects. He finds joy in transforming complex issues into written content that anyone can understand. Milko has used and analyzed numerous exchanges, such as Coinbase, FTX, and Binance. He also closely follows all of the latest news around the largest decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Location: Skopje, Macedonia