Incident Overview
Hackers launched a phishing attack targeting users of the Ledger hardware wallet.
The attackers allegedly sent Ledger users an email informing them that their wallets had been hacked in a security breach impacting thousands of users. They stated that the incident occurred on October 24 and that the Ledger security team is unable to estimate the extent of user harm.
"In order to protect your assets, please download the latest version of Ledger Live and follow the instructions to set up a new PIN to your wallet," the email said. The user is then sent to a download link on a bogus website designed to steal the user's credentials.
Incident Report
Protocol Information
What the Attacker Needed to Succeed
Understanding the prerequisites for this type of attack helps auditors identify protocols that are most at risk and helps developers build better defenses.
What Auditors Should Check
If you're auditing a protocol with similar architecture to Ledger, these are the critical security checks that could have prevented this incident (October 2020).
- Verify all logic paths related to Access Control are guarded by proper access controls and input validation - see the Access Control Attacks attack class for patterns
- Review privileged functions (owner, admin, governance) for potential abuse vectors - centralization risks should be documented and bounded with timelocks or multi-sigs
Master these auditing techniques with hands-on labs and real exploit scenarios in the Smart Contract Hacking course.
Free TrialRelated Attack Classes
The technique used in this hack maps to these vulnerability classes in our security curriculum:
Sources & References
Learn to Prevent the Next Ledger
The Ledger hack is one of many attacks that skilled auditors are trained to detect before deployment. Master real exploit patterns and defense techniques with hands-on Web3 security training.