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How I hacked a hardware crypto wallet and recovered $2 million

How I hacked a hardware crypto wallet and recovered $2 million on HackerTube: recommended by 2 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2022–2023.

Joe Grand

talk · intermediate · evergreen

Open on YouTube

Joe Grand recounts being hired to hack a Trezor One hardware wallet and recover $2 million of cryptocurrency. He describes three months of experimentation, voltage glitching, failures and high-stakes attempts with only one chance to get it right.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended as a gripping real-world hardware hacking story and a showcase of Joe Grand's skill.

people recommended it
2
separate months
2
strong recommendations
1
discussed on HN
2022–2023
“a cool video about someone hacking a Trezor One. Very enjoyable watch.”
— barbazoo, May 2023, in “Kaspersky: Case study: fake hardware cryptowallet (Trezor)”

What HN commenters said

4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

anyfactorNov 2022Strongly recommends

I think hardware hacking is the coolest stuff ever. That is why we have so many people buying Raspberry Pi-s. I guess the best way to keep your curiosity after X years of age is to start with a really challenging project that you know has steps of micro-success. Also, find a motivating community where you can chill, rant or discuss things with. That's why I am here, you are here. You need to have some level of familiarity with the domain of knowledge so, you know what you can achieve in what amount of time. There needs to be the idea of challenge, definite success and somewhat familiarity involved. My example: I like the old school WSB community. If you know, the tesla-short era. So, I attempted to build tooling that they will enjoy, and I will have fun discussing. My checklist of accomplishments was things I knew can be completed in a few hours. The progressive dopamine hits kept me focused. I was doing great. Why did I fail? Community itself become not the same. Fun discussions were harder to find. Market kept going up, meaning tools that I made is worthless because anything I didn't make sense because stonks go up. A Complex JavaScript project felt harder to write than I anticipated. So again, community, challenge and knowing your limits. If you are looking for hardware hacking motivation, these two videos blew my mind. Joe Grand, crypto wallet hacking: ▶ this video [link] This channel is also good, but it is a bit wacky: [link] Edit: Also validation. When WSB got extremely pop

in “Starlink User Terminal Modchip” · View on HN

barbazooMay 2023Recommends

Somewhat related, I was recently pointed to a cool video about someone hacking a Trezor One. Very enjoyable watch. ▶ this video > I was contacted to hack a Trezor One hardware wallet and recover $2 million worth of cryptocurrency (in the form of THETA).

in “Kaspersky: Case study: fake hardware cryptowallet (Trezor)” · View on HN

johtsoMar 2023Cites it

Joe Grand is one of those people: ▶ this video Also here's a presentation on finding vulnerabilities in Ironkey flashdrive: [link]

in “Man has two more chances before $232M in Bitcoin is lost forever” · View on HN

GistNoesisJan 2022Cites it

Even the best can make obvious mistakes. "I hacked a hardware crypto wallet and recovered $2M [video]" [link] Showing a blurry 16 out of 24 trezor wallet seed words ▶ this video

in “Recovering redacted information from pixelated videos” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Security & hackingCryptographyEmbedded systems & DIY electronicstrezorfault injectionvoltage glitchingjoe grandcryptocurrency recovery