Bitcoin.org has released a security advisory over the weekend that warns all people in the digital currency's community against Bitcoin wallet generated on any Android mobile operating system devices due to a security flaw that leaves the devices open to theft from hackers.
The insecurity appears from a flaw in the Android Java SecureRandom class, which, under certain circumstances can produce numbers that aren't truly nondeterministic. This makes it all too easy for a hacker to figure out a user's cryptographic private key. Private keys are what allow users to sign in to make Bitcoin transactions, if a hacker has access to these private keys, he or she can make transactions using Bitcoin, which equates to real money.
So far, according to Arstechnica, at least 55 BTC (approximately $5,720 as of Monday morning) has been stolen.
"The company said updates are being prepared for wallet apps including Bitcoin Wallet, where the update is in beta testing now, BitcoinSpinner, for which an update is being prepared, Mycelium Wallet, for which update v0.6.5 can be installed from Google Play or the Mycelium Website, and an update is also being prepared for blockchain.info," writes eWeek.
"Because the problem lies with Android itself, this problem will affect you if you have a wallet generated by any Android app," a note on the company's Website said. "Apps where you don't control the private keys at all are not affected. For example, exchange frontends like the Coinbase or Mt Gox apps are not impacted by this issue because the private keys are not generated on your Android phone."
This flaw affects any and all Bitcoin addresses that are generated on any and all Android Bitcoin apps. Bitcoin has increased heavily in real-world value so the security hack on Bitcoin wallet apps is significant as it will cost the victim real money amounts. Users are encouraged to change their codes via a random number generator on a regular basis.
If you are looking for the safest bitcoin wallet app, you can check the list of the best cryptocurrency wallets published and constantly updated by Cryptimi.
Below is a video explaining how Bitcoin works.
