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Moderate 58 Bitcoin

Use one PSRAM write counter

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by scgbckbone

45/100 · Thin
Use one PSRAM write counter
✓ Descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component! No meaningful explanatory body
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit simplifies how the COLDCARD firmware tracks writes to its external PSRAM memory chip. Previously, the firmware kept two separate counters: one for transaction (TXN) data and one for firmware upgrade images. The change merges them into a single counter that increments on any PSRAM write. The goal is to make it harder for an attacker to silently modify data after the user has reviewed it, by detecting any later write to PSRAM. It is a defensive hardening change rather than a fix for a known active attack, and the commit message does not describe a specific vulnerability.

Recommended action

Treat as a hardening improvement. Review whether the unified counter interacts correctly with all PSRAM consumers (e.g., HSM policy, NFC, QR, backup data) to ensure no legitimate write path inadvertently invalidates an unrelated approval snapshot. Continue monitoring for follow-up commits that address any bypass scenarios not covered by this change.

Security signals we found

01

Defensive integrity check for staged data before cryptographic signing

02

Single global write counter reduces risk of inconsistent or bypassed per-region counters

03

Failure-closed behavior: wipes transaction and aborts if staged data changed

04

Removes conditional counter increment based on offset/MAX_TXN_LEN, closing potential bypass where writes outside expected regions were tracked separately

05

No explicit bug or CVE described in commit message or diff

Risk score

Why this scored 58/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 18/30
Exploitability 12/25
Stealth signal 8/15
Affected reach 10/15
Confidence 7/10
Evidence quality 3/5
Human-validated context

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