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Coldcard firmware update adds randomness to new seed generation

Coinkite says users with seeds created on affected firmware must generate a new seed and transfer funds, since installing fixed firmware does not change an existing seed.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

Coinkite, the maker of the Coldcard Bitcoin hardware wallet, released new standard firmware on Aug. 20 that changes how wallet seeds are created, requiring added physical randomness from the user whenever a seed is generated.

Under the hardened process, new seed creation uses fresh device entropy plus one required human input source, such as at least 65 key presses at unpredictable intervals, 50 rolls of a physical six-sided die, or 128 physical coin flips. The added step is intended to reduce reliance on the wallet's random-number generator alone.

Owners who generate a seed after installing the current fixed release can use the hardened process, but Coldcard says it cannot retroactively add entropy to a seed that already exists. If a wallet’s seed was produced on an affected release and the dice-roll exception does not apply, users are told to generate another seed and transfer the funds, following a migration workflow that includes verifying a new backup and wallet fingerprint and sending a small test transaction first.

Coldcard’s security advisory recommends firmware versions 5.6.1 for Mk4 and Mk5 devices and 1.5.1Q for Q devices. Coinkite also cautions that cloning or restoring the wallet does not create a new seed, and that owners should migrate when they have fewer than the required die rolls or uncertainty about whether the exception conditions were met, with an issue traced to code that could route requests to a deterministic MicroPython fallback.

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