Crypto Christmas Heist: Over $6 Million Lost, Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Wallet Hacked Analysis

By: blockbeats|2026/04/17 04:57:41
0
Share
copy
Original Title: "Christmas Heist | Trust Wallet Browser Extension Wallet Hacked Analysis"
Original Source: SlowMist Technology

Background

Early this morning Beijing time, @zachxbt announced in the channel, "Some Trust Wallet users reported that funds in their wallet addresses have been stolen in the past few hours." Subsequently, Trust Wallet's official X also released an official statement confirming a security vulnerability in Trust Wallet Browser Extension version 2.68, advising all users using version 2.68 to immediately disable this version and upgrade to version 2.69.

Crypto Christmas Heist: Over $6 Million Lost, Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Wallet Hacked Analysis

Tactics

Upon receiving the intelligence, the SlowMist security team promptly conducted an analysis of the relevant samples. Let's first compare the core code of the previously released 2.67 and 2.68 versions:

By diffing the code of the two versions, we found the malicious code added by the hacker:

The malicious code will traverse all wallets in the plugin, make a "get mnemonic phrase" request for each user's wallet to obtain the user's encrypted mnemonic phrase, and finally use the password or passkeyPassword entered by the user when unlocking the wallet for decryption. If decryption is successful, the user's mnemonic phrase will be sent to the attacker's domain `api.metrics-trustwallet[.]com`.

We also analyzed the attacker's domain information; the attacker used the domain: metrics-trustwallet.com.

Upon investigation, the registration time of this malicious domain was 2025-12-08 02:28:18, and the domain registrar is: NICENIC INTERNATIONA.

Request records targeting api.metrics-trustwallet[.]com began on 2025-12-21.

This timestamp and the implantation of the backdoor with code 12.22 are roughly the same.

We continue to reproduce the entire attack process through code tracking analysis:

Through dynamic analysis, it can be seen that after unlocking the wallet, the attacker filled the mnemonic information into the error in R1.

And the source of this Error data is obtained through the GET_SEED_PHRASE function call. Currently, Trust Wallet supports two ways to unlock: password and passkeyPassword. The attacker, during the unlocking process, obtained the password or passkeyPassword, then called GET_SEED_PHRASE to obtain the wallet's mnemonic phrase (private key as well), and then placed the mnemonic phrase in the "errorMessage".

Below is the code using emit to call GetSeedPhrase to obtain the mnemonic phrase data and fill it into the error.

Traffic analysis performed through BurpSuite shows that after obtaining the mnemonic phrase, it is encapsulated in the request body's errorMessage field and sent to a malicious server (https[://]api[.]metrics-trustwallet[.]com), which is consistent with the previous analysis.

Through the above process, the theft of the mnemonic phrase/private key is completed. In addition, the attacker is also familiar with the source code and utilizes the open-source full-lifecycle product analysis platform PostHogJS to collect user wallet information.

Stolen Asset Analysis

(https://t.me/investigations/296)

According to ZachXBT's disclosed hacker address, we have calculated that as of the time of publication, the total amount of stolen assets on the Bitcoin blockchain is approximately 33 BTC (valued at around 3 million USD), the stolen assets on the Solana blockchain are valued at around 431 USD, and the stolen assets on the Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 chains are valued at around 3 million USD. After stealing the coins, the hacker used various centralized exchanges and cross-chain bridges to transfer and exchange some of the assets.

Summary

This backdoor incident originated from a malicious code modification to the Trust Wallet extension's internal codebase (analytics service logic), rather than the introduction of a tampered third-party package (such as a malicious npm package). The attacker directly altered the application's own code, using the legitimate PostHog library to redirect analytics data to a malicious server. Therefore, we have reason to believe this was a professional APT attack, where the attacker may have gained control of Trust Wallet-related developers' device or release deployment permissions prior to December 8.

Recommendations:

1. If you have installed the Trust Wallet extension wallet, you should immediately disconnect from the internet as a prerequisite for investigation and actions.

2. Immediately export your private key/mnemonic phrase and uninstall the Trust Wallet extension wallet.

3. After backing up your private key/mnemonic phrase, promptly transfer your funds to another wallet.

Original Article Link

-- Price

--

You may also like

Wosh: Inflation has cooled in recent weeks, AI is reshaping the economy, and forward guidance has lost its necessity

Federal Reserve Chairman Waller clearly stated at the ECB forum that the Fed will abandon forward guidance on interest rates, with future decisions relying entirely on real-time economic data. He noted that inflation risks in the U.S. have decreased over the past four weeks, but the ultimate impact ...

The most secretive AI winner

A century-old company that sells toilets and produces MSG has seen its stock price soar by "positioning" core materials for AI chips. This article clarifies the explosive opportunities for domestic substitution of semiconductor materials in the A-share market.

Former ByteDance employee's account: How I started with two Pinduoduo hard drives and made six times the profit with Seagate to achieve financial freedom?

A programmer from a big tech company bought hard drives on Pinduoduo and, following clues, managed to accurately capture the sixfold rising stock Seagate using the "finding daily anomalies + 13F institutional verification" framework, making a wild profit of $400,000 and achieving financial freedom.

MiCA reshuffle begins, Binance temporarily bids farewell to the EU

What Binance leaves behind is not scattered retail investors, but a whole batch of high-value users who are forced to liquidate and have almost nowhere to go.

How does Gate redo "buying and selling stocks" from the cryptocurrency world to the stock market?

The competition logic of exchanges has changed.

Visa and Mastercard join 140 giants to launch a new stablecoin, but the impact on the market landscape may still be limited

As an important milestone event in the stablecoin landscape, OUSD is likely to change the existing stablecoin landscape and significantly increase the adoption rate of stablecoins in the global financial system.

Popular coins

Latest Crypto News

Read more
iconiconiconiconiconiconicon
Customer Support:@weikecs
Business Cooperation:@weikecs
Quant Trading & MM:bd@weex.com
VIP Program:support@weex.com