Researchers Discover a Cheap Method of Breaking Bitcoin Wallet Passwords (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Three researchers have published a paper that details a new method of cracking Bitcoin "brain wallet passwords," which is 2.5 times speedier than previous techniques and incredibly cheap to perform. The researcher revealed that by using a run-of-the-mill Amazon EC2 account, an attacker would be able to check over 500,000 Bitcoin passwords per second. For each US dollar spent on renting the EC2 server, an attacker would be able to check 17.9 billion password strings. To check a trillion passwords, it would cost the attacker only $55.86 (€49.63). In the end, they managed to crack around 18,000 passwords used for real accounts.

Comments

Wow what a surprise...

[Noryungi]

In other words, Bitcoin is finally getting the attention it deserves from security researchers. And, surprise! It's full of bugs!

I would be tempted to say: "Film at 11" or even "told ya so", but the truth of the matter is, I have suspected for a long long time that Bitcoin was not as secure as its proponents have been saying all along.

I am waiting for the price of bitcoin to fall pretty freaking fast, once everyone realizes hard-earned bitcoins can be stolen from thin air extremely easily, like they have been stolen in the past.

I still think Bitcoin may yet be proven as the tulip craze of the 21st century. Some people will lose their shirts. Things never change (madness and wisdom of the crowds, yadda yadda yadda).

You can mod me down now.