Recovered a decade-old cryptocurrency wallet and recovered $3 million worth of Bitcoin
Two cybersecurity researchers were able to help an unidentified user recover 43.6 Bitcoin (BTC) that he lost 11 years ago, with the value of these coins estimated at approximately $3 million. Incident details: According to a video posted on YouTube, researchers Joe Grand and his friend Bruno reverse-engineered the password generator that the user used to create his wallet password. Despite the difficulty of the operation they succeeded in regaining access to the wallet and recovering the lost coins
The user Michael, he created the wallet in 2013 and used RoboForm to create its password. Due to his security concerns, he decided to store the password in an encrypted file instead of using RoboForm directly. Michael said: I was paranoid about security at the time He explained that the value of the stored coins was about $5,300 at the time
However, the encrypted file was corrupted resulting in loss of access to the wallet. Michael reached out to Joe Grand for the first time in 2022 but Grand refused to help. However Michael insisted and tried again in June 2023 which caught Grand's attention, and the asset recovery process began. Grand and Bruno discovered that RoboForm had a vulnerability in its random number generator as it linked each password to the date and time it was created. Although the vulnerability was fixed in 2015, the two researchers exploited this vulnerability to test hundreds of passwords until they were able to find the correct one, which was generated on May 15 2013 Upon discovering the correct password, they regained access to the wallet and were able to recover the Bitcoin
Michael gave a portion of the recovered assets to Grande and Bruno as a thank you when the value of Bitcoin was around $38,000 When the value of Bitcoin rose to $62,000 Michael sold another portion to himself. Currently, he holds 30 bitcoins worth an estimated $2 million and intends to hold them until the bitcoin value reaches $100,000
