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Low 46 Bitcoin

external entropy required for CCC key and temporary seeds

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by scgbckbone

35/100 · Opaque
external entropy required for CCC key and temporary seeds
✓ Specific, descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Names security-relevant behavior explicitly! No meaningful explanatory body! Contains work-in-progress language! Opaque security-relevant change
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit changes how COLDCARD creates two special types of secrets: temporary seeds and the 'CCC' co-signing key. Previously these were generated purely from the device's own random number generator. Now the user must add their own randomness (for example by mashing buttons, rolling dice, or flipping coins) before the secret is created. This makes it harder for an attacker who has somehow compromised the device's random generator to predict or control those secrets. It is a defensive hardening change, not a fix for a known active attack.

Recommended action

No immediate user action is required beyond updating to the firmware version containing this change. Users generating new temporary seeds or CCC keys should be prepared to provide extra entropy when prompted. Security reviewers may want to verify that the entropy-mixing construction (DOMAIN_SEED + purpose + method + base_seed + extra_entropy) and the cleanup of sensitive buffers in the finally block are correct.

Security signals we found

01

Hardening against compromised or weakened hardware RNG

02

Domain separation added via PURPOSE_* constants

03

User-supplied entropy now mandatory for CCC key and temporary seeds

04

Removal of pure-TRNG generation path for sensitive seeds

05

ChangeLog describes this as a user-visible change, not a bugfix

Risk score

Why this scored 46/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 12/30
Exploitability 8/25
Stealth signal 6/15
Affected reach 10/15
Confidence 7/10
Evidence quality 3/5
Human-validated context

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