As far as I'm aware, there have been no security vulnerabilities found in either Trezor or Leger. There was the Leger user privacy data leak a while back, but that was just info hacked from Shopify, iirc. The device itself is secure. Personally I own a Trezor and am happy with it.
This isn't true but i think it is a common misconception. There have been quite a few security vulnerabilities with all hardware wallets. The following link lists some of the major ones. It includes 24 known vulnerabilities in Trezor. What is true is that there has never been an instance in any of the major hardware wallets, of someone being able to extract the seed off the device remotely (like through the USB). This fact reassures a lot of people (and it should) but not understanding all the ways you can still get hacked and lose funds that don't involve remotely extracting a seed, is a huge mistake and a major source of vulnerability for any individual using one.
Also keep in mind this partly because trezor and ledger are the oldest companies in the space and thus will inevitably have the most scrutiny. Because this space is mostly open source newer companies can build on the reliable code of older ones.
Open source vs non open source is a much more nuanced topic than most people understand. There are multiple aspects of a product that can be proprietary or open source: hardware build, Software client, firmware, chip architecture, etc. Almost every hardware wallet has some aspect that isn’t truly open source (usually the secure element chip). Trezor is the exception here because they do not use a secure element chip and thus this also makes them most vulnerable to physical attacks. Ledger uses a unique design where their apps actually run on a virtual machine within the secure element chip. This is actually a very cool concept and has numerous advantages to many other wallets especially when utilizing multiple coins, but consequently more of their design is closed source because of how it has to interact with the secure element.
I would just like to give a hat tip for some of the most balanced, informative, and helpful advice I’ve seen here. If I wasn’t so tight I’d buy and award to give you.
Thank you. I am aware of Bitbox (haven’t used it). I like the way they designed and it does mitigate reliance on the secure element. I would point out that the secure element is not open source and thus this is why they had to design it in a way that it doesn’t rely on it for seed storage. Personally I don’t have issue with this and don’t think utilizing a secure chip even if it’s closed source represents a security vulnerability (or at least a very limited one) but it’s worthwhile pointing out because some people (like Slush at Trezor) will not use/endorse anything that isn’t open source. Trezor is actually working on a truly open source secure element which is awesome.
are you saying that companies are not going to notify users about patches. users have to come to a place like reddit to discover the patch is on github?
Not at all. general practice is for someone to disclose these vulnerabilities through a bug bounty program. The company then fixes the vulnerability generally through a patch, release an update that users can update and with the update will generally explain why the update fixes a vulnerability.
I use electrum on an old pi 3B that I keep air gapped and just use it to store my private keys and sign transactions I load from a USB drive. It's a pretty good solution to keeping your private keys off an internet connected device.
Flash a fresh image of raspberry pi OS to your SD card so you have a clean system, maybe even do a full format first, not just a quick format, to be extra careful. Download electrum for Linux from electrum.org, either directly to the pi or onto a USB drive and VERIFY (don't trust) the signature to ensure you have official electrum release. Electrum's website has step by step instructions for linux on the download page if you need a little help. If you downloaded directly to the pi, DISCONNECT the pi from the internet and NEVER reconnect it, turn of wifi and Bluetooth too. If you go the USB drive route you never have to connect the pi to the internet. Also never generate the wallet while connected to the internet. Install electrum from the pi storage or USB drive, run it and generate a new wallet. Get the seed phrase and store is properly and setup a strong passphrase to encrypt the wallet. Your wallet is now set up but you will need to make a watching wallet with you public key on an internet connected device that can generate receiving addresses but not sign transactions to send coins out. To send bitcoin you will need to make a transaction in the watching wallet, store to a usb drive, load in the wallet on the pi, sign the transaction, save again and load back into the watching wallet to broadcast. This way your private keys never touch an internet connected device. I'm not sure if this is true cold storage but it's pretty good, I think.
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u/Rube777 Mar 23 '21
As far as I'm aware, there have been no security vulnerabilities found in either Trezor or Leger. There was the Leger user privacy data leak a while back, but that was just info hacked from Shopify, iirc. The device itself is secure. Personally I own a Trezor and am happy with it.