Cobo Co-founder Shenyu: U.S. law enforcement obtained private keys to 120,000 Bitcoins related to the 2020 LuBian mining pool theft through a randomness flaw

Techub News: Cobo co-founder Shenyu posted that U.S. law enforcement has obtained the private keys for over 120,000 Bitcoins mysteriously transferred in 2020, assets currently valued at approximately $150 billion. It was disclosed that law enforcement did not acquire the private keys through cracking or hacking, but by discovering a randomness flaw present during their generation. Incomplete statistics show that over 220,000 addresses were affected by this vulnerability, and a complete list has been made public. The private keys for these wallets were generated by a flawed pseudorandom number generator (PRNG). The use of a fixed offset and pattern by the PRNG increased the predictability of the private keys. Users continue to transfer funds to the related addresses, indicating the vulnerability risk has not been fully eliminated.

Previously reported, the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to seize the 127,271 Bitcoins related to the LuBian hack and has linked them to the Prince Group, a network organization associated with global cybercrime.