Crypto Thieves Sell Tampered Ledger Wallets with Hidden eSIM to Steal $93 Million
Crypto thieves sell hardware wallets with secret eSIM
Attackers are selling modified Ledger Nano X hardware wallets that secretly capture seed phrases and transmit them via an embedded LTE modem and eSIM. The Secure Element chip remains untouched, but an added chip intercepts the screen data. Over 300 wallets have been drained of roughly $93 million. Ledger has warned customers who bought from the dealer Cryptobilis in the last three months to move their funds immediately.
They haven’t touched the Secure Element chip at all; it remains secure. Instead, they have installed an additional chip that intercepts the transmission from the Secure Element to the built-in screen and recognizes the displayed letters of the seed phrase – embedded Tempest.