Facepalm: Controversial anti-virus pioneer and arguably the most entertaining character in the tech world, John McAfee, is making headlines again. This time, it’s related to his “unhackable” Bitfi wallet, which a 15-year-old managed to break into before running the original Doom on it.
So confident was McAfee in his wallet’s security abilities that he offered a $250,000 bug bounty to anyone who could compromise the device and steal the crypto coins. But this is the second time the wallet has been hacked after a Dutch security researcher last week claimed to have gained root access—and all without owning or possessing one of the devices.
In recognition of @Bitfi6 and @officialmcafee and their prestigious @PwnieAwards accolades, we'd like to show you @spudowiar playing DooM on his #BitFi secure wallet! Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/50qZZu1MnF
— Abe Snowman (@AbeSnowman) 9 August 2018
Security researcher Saleem Rashid was the person behind the latest feat, but the teenager won’t be receiving a quarter-of-a-million-dollar reward. The terms of the bug bounty state that to become $250,000 richer, you have to steal the coins that the wallet can access. The crypto isn’t stored on the device itself but is somewhere in the cloud.
McAfee has argued that despite getting root access and being able to port the classic FPS to the wallet, these actions do not constitute a hack. He says the definition would only be accurate if Rashid managed to extract the coins.
The press claiming the BitFi wallet has been hacked. Utter nonsense. The wallet is hacked when someone gets the coins. No-one got any coins. Gaining root access in an attempt to get the coins is not a hack. It's a failed attempt. All these alleged "hacks" did not get the coins.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) 3 August 2018
It's not been a good few weeks for the Bitfi wallet. Security researcher Ryan Castellucci recently called it nothing more than a cheap, stripped-down Android phone. He even made the accurate prediction that someone would soon have Doom running on it, though it took slightly longer than he expected.
Bitfi appears to be exactly what it looks like from the photos - a cheap stripped down Android phone. There's some screenshots of it demanding to be connected to WiFi in order to function elsewhere in @cybergibbons's feed. Someone will probably have Doom running on it by Friday. https://t.co/cC1pZsahJH
— Ryan Castellucci [VEGAS] (@ryancdotorg) 29 July 2018
https://www.techspot.com/news/75890-teenager-runs-doom-john-mcafee-unhackable-crypto-wallet.html