Trust Wallet Core before 3.1.1, as used in the Trust Wallet browser extension before 0.0.183, allows theft of funds because the entropy is 32 bits, as exploited in the wild in December 2022 and March 2023. This occurs because the mt19937 Mersenne Twister takes a single 32-bit value as an input seed, resulting in only four billion possible mnemonics. The affected versions of the browser extension are 0.0.172 through 0.0.182. To steal funds efficiently, an attacker can identify all Ethereum addresses created since the 0.0.172 release, and check whether they are Ethereum addresses that could have been created by this extension. To respond to the risk, affected users need to upgrade the product version and also move funds to a new wallet address.
The product uses a Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) in a security context, but the PRNG’s algorithm is not cryptographically strong.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust_wallet_browser_extension | Trustwallet | 0.0.172 (including) | 0.0.183 (excluding) |
| Trust_wallet_core | Trustwallet | * | 3.1.1 (excluding) |
When a non-cryptographic PRNG is used in a cryptographic context, it can expose the cryptography to certain types of attacks. Often a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) is not designed for cryptography. Sometimes a mediocre source of randomness is sufficient or preferable for algorithms that use random numbers. Weak generators generally take less processing power and/or do not use the precious, finite, entropy sources on a system. While such PRNGs might have very useful features, these same features could be used to break the cryptography.