Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported on December 25 a series of unauthorized fund outflows affecting several Trust Wallet users. According to victims, funds were withdrawn from their wallet addresses without the owners' permission. The incidents reportedly followed a recent update to the Trust Wallet extension for the Chrome browser, but the wallet team has yet to provide a detailed technical explanation.
What Happened with Trust Wallet?
ZachXBT wrote about cases of unauthorized fund withdrawals recorded on December 25 and noted the timing coincided with a recent update to the Chrome extension. Victims describe funds being withdrawn from addresses without their approval, prompting the public disclosure. So far, the Trust Wallet team has not presented a detailed technical analysis of the incident, leaving the causes open for investigation.
Causes and Investigation
The exact cause of the leak has not been confirmed, and an official link to the extension update has not been established. ZachXBT has begun collecting wallet addresses that, according to his data, may have been involved in the suspected thefts and is asking victims to report incidents to continue the investigation. Meanwhile, the community awaits clarifications from Trust Wallet to understand the technical details of what happened.
Risks of Using Wallet Extensions
Chrome extensions operate with elevated privileges, making them attractive targets for attackers. The source material indicates that fake extensions can intercept seed phrases, allowing full wallet reconstruction and fund withdrawal, while malicious updates can alter transactions or collect confidential data. Detailed context on previous major incidents can be found in the materials about the Trust Wallet hack, illustrating the scale of risks for extension users.
Recommendations for Users
- Check recent transactions on your addresses and note any suspicious withdrawals.
- Revoke unnecessary permissions from the extension and connected sites.
- Do not sign new transactions until clear information about the incident's causes emerges.
- If you suspect compromise, transfer remaining funds to new wallets created from fresh seed phrases.
Why This Matters
If you mine and store mined assets in the Trust Wallet browser extension, these incidents directly affect your security. Even if you keep your earnings elsewhere, cases involving extensions remind us that vulnerabilities in key management tools can lead to fund loss, so regular checks and caution are essential for every user.
What to Do?
Act quickly but calmly: first, check your wallets' status and transaction history, then limit potential compromise vectors. If you find signs of unauthorized withdrawals or doubt session security, follow the outlined steps and report incidents to ZachXBT’s investigation to assist data collection.
- Review and save transaction history for all used addresses.
- Revoke unnecessary permissions in the extension and on related sites.
- Do not confirm new transactions until the leak's cause is clear.
- If compromise is suspected, transfer funds to new wallets created with clean seed phrases.
- If possible, report compromises to the investigator collecting addresses for the inquiry—such as ZachXBT—to aid data gathering.
The community and users await a more detailed technical analysis from Trust Wallet to definitively establish the cause and scope of the leaks; until then, risk minimization is advised.