bankless.comarticleLedger Officially Responds to Hardware Wallet Attack
Ledger disclosed that an organized group bought genuine hardware wallets, implanted hidden components that capture the 24-word recovery phrase during setup and send it over cellular networks, then fed the devices back in through resellers in Southeast Asia. Onchain researchers estimate up to $93M stolen across 300+ wallets, a figure Ledger has not confirmed. Ledger asked regional resellers to suspend sales, found no tampering in samples it inspected, and added reseller rules (no shelf display, report suspicious units, no resale of returned devices). It says its chips, OS and servers were not compromised.
TL;DR Ledger says criminals implanted cellular-exfiltration hardware in genuine wallets resold via Southeast Asian resellers, stealing recovery phrases (est. up to $93M); it suspends regional sales and tightens reseller rules.
Organisations named here
- hardware implant
- recovery phrase theft
Technologies named here
- Ledger hardware wallets
- Users' 24-word recovery phrases
- Ledger
Techniques named here
- Supply chain / distribution-network tampering
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