AI-generated analysisPublished automatically and not human-verified. Validated context appears in community notes below.
← Watch feed
High 72 Bitcoin

bugfix: bind USB signing to staged PSBT

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by scgbckbone

45/100 · Thin
bugfix: bind USB signing to staged PSBT
✓ Descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component! No meaningful explanatory body
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit fixes a bug in the COLDCARD hardware wallet where a transaction could be signed over USB even if the data shown on the device screen did not match the data actually being signed. Before the fix, an attacker or buggy software could upload one PSBT (a Bitcoin transaction file) but then ask the device to sign a different one, or sign data that was not fully/correctly uploaded. The fix makes the USB signing command strictly verify the staged PSBT's length and SHA-256 hash against what is stored in memory, and resets upload state on errors so stale data cannot be reused.

Recommended action

Treat this as a security-relevant bugfix and include it in the next firmware release. Users should upgrade when available. Wallet software interacting with COLDCARD over USB should ensure it uploads the complete PSBT before invoking sign_transaction, as partial or mismatched uploads will now be rejected.

Security signals we found

01

USB signing now cryptographically bound to staged PSBT via SHA-256 and length check

02

Upload checksum state reset on framing errors, exceptions, malformed commands, and zero-length packets

03

Sequential offset enforcement prevents sparse/gapped uploads from being accepted

04

Running checksum updated only for data written to PSRAM, excluding failed firmware-header trailers

05

New and updated tests explicitly exercise mismatch, sparse offset, and error-reset behavior

Risk score

Why this scored 72/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 22/30
Exploitability 16/25
Stealth signal 10/15
Affected reach 12/15
Confidence 8/10
Evidence quality 4/5
Human-validated context

Community notes

Notes can correct, qualify, or add evidence to the AI analysis. Every note shown here has been validated by a human moderator.

No validated notes yet.

The AI analysis stands alone for now. Submit a note if you can add evidence or important context.