A hacker has allegedly stolen thousands of ether from wallets and a researcher claims that Bitcoin wallets could be targeted. In a report recently published by an independent security analyst, some flaws in passphrase generators could have caused around 45,000 ether to be stolen.

Weak Passwords Vulnerable

Adrian Bednarek was stunned when he first discovered the siphoning process, considering the slim chance of guessing the keys that protect a wallet it was extremely improbable that anyone could guess them by chance.

It’s good to understand that the probability of guessing a private key is about 1 in 115 quattuorvigintillion, which is near impossible even if the hacker was using automated processes.

The analyst was inspecting the Ethereum ledger when he found some keys to wallets holding assets were emptied immediately cryptocurrencies were deposited in them.

Bednarek explain that the private key can be used to derive the public address and process transaction. If a hacker has access to both the private key and the public address he takes control of the wallet and steals the available funds.

Bitcoin Wallets Could Be Targeted

Conducting research on Bitcoin wallets, the analysts searched for potential flaws on the Bitcoin Blockchain by using the same process used for Ethereum.

There was no sign that a single hacker stole all the funds due to the scope of the operation pointing to suspicion that an organization or rouge nation hackers are responsible.