Teenager runs Doom on John McAfee's "unhackable" crypto-wallet

midian182

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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.

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.

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.

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McAfee is passe in the computer community. He once was much respected and admired but some of his antic's over the past two decades make him appear like an immature frat boy. I'm surprised that ANYONE pays any attention to him but Elon Musk needs to pay attention because he's on the very same path .....
 
Wait, is the "Bitfi wallet" the android device? Or the location where the crypto coins are stored?

Because if it's the device, then technically it was hacked and McAfee is just looking like an id!ot for not using the right context.
Though, the coins are still safe, so he has a bit of credibility to what he claims.
 
I agree with Mcafee on this, steal the coins, not throw loud claims of getting root access and everything. None could get to the point and get the coins, no prizes earned.
 
Wait, is the "Bitfi wallet" the android device? Or the location where the crypto coins are stored?

Because if it's the device, then technically it was hacked and McAfee is just looking like an id!ot for not using the right context.
Though, the coins are still safe, so he has a bit of credibility to what he claims.
He claimed the wallet was unhackable, and said you needed to steal the coins as proof. Which leaves it as not one, but two challenges. If you stole the coins out of the cloud, without needing a wallet, then you "didn't hack the wallet" so I bet he would say it doesn't count. Just like how he says hacking this wallet doesn't count because no one took the coins out of the cloud.
 
He claimed the wallet was unhackable, and said you needed to steal the coins as proof. Which leaves it as not one, but two challenges. If you stole the coins out of the cloud, without needing a wallet, then you "didn't hack the wallet" so I bet he would say it doesn't count. Just like how he says hacking this wallet doesn't count because no one took the coins out of the cloud.
If he calls the android device a "Bitfi wallet", then he is either using the wrong context/reference or just wrong. Because the device was hacked. Nothing in the article differentiates the device and the location with the crypto coins.

And I'm aware there was a second part of the challenge (the important part). But the kid claimed that he hacked the device to play Doom, and then McAfee said that there wasn't a hack on the "Bitfi wallet". Hacking root access is still a hack last I checked.
 
If he calls the android device a "Bitfi wallet", then he is either using the wrong context/reference or just wrong. Because the device was hacked. Nothing in the article differentiates the device and the location with the crypto coins.

And I'm aware there was a second part of the challenge (the important part). But the kid claimed that he hacked the device to play Doom, and then McAfee said that there wasn't a hack on the "Bitfi wallet". Hacking root access is still a hack last I checked.
Exactly. I don't think he put actual bitcoins on there. If he did, you can bet someone would have gotten them by now.
 
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