2025-12-26 08:23:06

Coming back from a business trip and opening the wallet to find—zero balance. This is not a movie plot, but a real nightmare that actually happened. A user asked his wife to assist with transferring 3 million USDT, but after the plane landed, it turned into an astronomical deficit. At first, the police thought it was an operational mistake, but the wife’s explanation was very suspicious: "I just pasted the seed phrase, I didn’t do any transfer operation." The truth turned out to be even more chilling—an apparently harmless paste action was actually a covert listening operation by hackers for months.

Having worked in blockchain security for many years, I’ve seen too many blood-and-tears lessons like this. Today, I will break down this case completely and talk about the protective bottom lines you must know.

**Why was the defense breached?**

The culprit isn’t some advanced 0day vulnerability, but rather the most basic operational bad habits. Storing seed phrases directly in WeChat chats—this is like posting your house key on Moments. Cache in WeChat, photo albums, cloud sync—all leave traces. Hackers used a malicious browser plugin called "Financial Assistant" to capture clipboard content in real time. This plugin looks harmless, but in fact, it has clipboard reading permissions— the moment you paste your seed phrase, the data is sent to the hacker’s server.

There’s also an accomplice: an old Android device + WiFi password unchanged for three years. Outdated system vulnerabilities are everywhere, and weak WiFi passwords become long-term footholds for hackers. This "deadly combo" completely breaks through all defenses.

Cases like this happen frequently in the industry. A player in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, scanned a fake wallet QR code and lost hundreds of thousands in 30 minutes; a user in Rudong, Nantong, had their private key cracked, and over 4 million virtual assets vanished overnight. The story is the same, different victims.

**How to protect yourself?** Remember these three points: First, never store seed phrases online; cold storage is the way to go. Second, update device systems regularly, change WiFi passwords every six months. Third, always check permissions before installing any browser plugin—refuse clipboard access if possible. Be cautious—this is not a joke—these are hard-earned warnings exchanged for real money.

View Original

This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.

16 Likes

Reward
16
1
Repost
Share

Comment

0/400

DaoResearcher

· 6h ago

According to the security model in the white paper, the vulnerability of this attack chain lies in the imbalance of the incentive mechanism—high defense costs on the user side lead to compliance failure. It is worth noting that clipboard permission governance has not yet formed a consensus protocol standard. --- It's ridiculous to store mnemonic phrases in WeChat... From the perspective of on-chain data, this is already a foreseeable systematic risk. --- A typical information asymmetry problem, which has been written about in the white paper. From the perspective of token economics, this is a failure case of governance proposal execution. --- Hackers are essentially engaging in arbitrage; the clipboard vulnerability should have had DAO-level protective standards long ago. --- Everyone thinks that secure operations are actually riddled with vulnerabilities—firstly, they lack incentive compatibility, and secondly, system design has not considered human weaknesses. --- This case is used to demonstrate why self-custody requires a mandatory education requirement. I can draft a governance proposal.

View OriginalReply0