Hey everyone,
I’ve got a question. Is it risky to connect Specter to Bitcoin Core? I heard Bitcoin Core keeps the pub key unencrypted, so can someone use it to figure out my private key? Like, I get that it’s tough, but with quantum computers, isn’t it possible? Also, how does setting up a multi-sig wallet in Specter change things?
When we talk about that stuff, if you’re using the terms from iancoleman’s BIP39 tool, the descriptors for non-MultiSig wallets will definitely have the ‘Account Extended Public Key’. This is just an extended public key that’s derived from your account index. You can generate your BIP32 Extended Public Key from it since it’s a non-hardened child.
If you wanna verify, you can run Bitcoin Core’s wallet RPC: listdescriptors with your Specter wallet name.
Thanks for the info!
But I keep wondering, why does Sparrow say it’s risky? What can hackers really do with just the pub key? I mean, that sounds a bit extreme…
Sparrow mentions that since Bitcoin Core stores your public keys unencrypted and online, you could get targeted if your balance is known. Seems kinda scary.
Yeah, I think they mean if a hacker finds your xpub and sees how much Bitcoin you have, you become a target especially if it’s a lot. They might not even need to use the xpub directly on Bitcoin Core to hack into your Specter wallet.
Plus, remember that xpub isn’t totally safe if you’ve been exporting any private keys from Specter, even if they’re from unfunded addresses. Not sure if you can do that in Specter though.