Dusting Attacks - Reading Assignment

Privacy Coins - Ultimate Course
#262

  1. The goal is to eventually link the dusted addresses and wallets to their respective companies or individuals.

  2. The attackers may use this knowledge against their targets, either through elaborated phishing attacks or cyber-extortion threats.

  3. Dusting attacks work on both types of wallets.

  4. The Samourai Wallet team implemented a real-time alert for dust tracking as well as a “Do Not Spend” feature that lets users mark suspicious funds, so these are not included in future transactions.

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#263 
1 to follow utxo or account wallet moves until possible identification of the wallet owner

2 the ‘victim’ once identified can be arrested if it is a criminal, or if the ‘victim’ was dusted by ‘criminals’ could be targeted to be attacked by pishing, spam or other malicious actions
3 no, once publickey receiced something the publickey/address is known in the blockchain, so anyone can send dust to the any address known in the blockchain.
4 Samourai Wallet can be configured to ignore sending/selecting utxo from received dust ‘amounts’, so that the user does not need to care to select by himself what utxo coins to use in a normal use of wallet funds/balances.

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#264
  1. What is the goal of a dusting attack?
  • The goal of a dusting attack is to deanonymize individuals or companies performing transactions on a blockchain.
  1. If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk?
  • If successful, attackers can use can use the information to elaborate and perform caber attacks on individuals and companies (e.g. ransomware)
  1. Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both?
  • Dusting attacks would work for both types of wallets depending on how the wallet owners use them.
  1. What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks?
  • A real-time alert for dust tracking was implemented along with a “Do Not Spend” feature to let users to mark suspicious funds, so these are not included in future transactions.
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#265
  1. What is the goal of a dusting attack?

A dusting attack means sending by sending tiny amounts of coins to wallets in order to track the transactional activities of these addresses. The goal is to link the addresses to real life people or companies

  1. If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk?

If successful, the victim might be suffering elaborated and personalized phishing attacks, or even cyber threats and extorsions.

  1. Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both?

If the dusted funds sent to the address are not moved, attackers are not able to “deanonimyze” wallets.

  1. What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks?

The Samourai Wallet implemented a real-time alert for dust tracking as well as a “Do Not Spend” feature that lets users mark suspicious funds, so these are not included in future transactions.

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#266

  1. The goal of a dusting attack is to break the privacy of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency users. When the transactional activity is tracked by hackers they attempt to deanonymize the individual or company behind the wallet. Hackers link the attacked wallet addresses with the users.

  2. If the dusting attack is successful, the attackers may target the wallet owners with phishing scams or cyber extortion threats.

  3. Dusting attacks work for both types of wallets.

  4. Real time alerts are sent to wallet users for dust tracking and also a “do not spend” feature that lets users mark suspicious funds, so they are not included in future transactions.

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#267

Before the answers, I want to tell you that at the “Dusting Attacks” part of the course the binance link is not working. You shoud replace it with the following one: https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-a-dusting-attack

  1. The goal is to eventually link the dusted addresses and wallets to their respective companies or individuals.
  2. If successful, the attackers may use this knowledge against their targets, either through elaborated phishing attacks or cyber-extortion threats.
  3. Both
  4. The Samourai Wallet team implemented a real-time alert for dust tracking as well as a “Do Not Spend” feature that lets users mark suspicious funds, so these are not included in future transactions.
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#268

Thanks for letting us know :raised_hands: I have updated the link.

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#269

  1. The goal of a dusting attack is to identify someone

  2. transaction activity is traced by bad actor and the attacker can use this info against the target.

  3. dusting attacks work on both wallets.

  4. samurai wallet implemented a do not spend rule on small and unknown transactions. meaning the dust will never move so there is nothing to trace.

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#270
  1. What is the goal of a dusting attack? when attackers send small tiny amounts of crypto to many different wallets in order to link addresses and find out the identity behind those addresses.
  2. If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk? they are at risk from fishing attacks and malware within the transaction memo.
  3. Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both? Both
  4. What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks? They implemented real time alerts and a “Do not spend” feature.
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#271

What is the goal of a dusting attack?
The goal of a dusting address is to identify a person or company behind a public crypto address.

If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk?
The attackers may use this knowledge against their targets, either through elaborated cryptojacking, ransomware and phishing attacks or another extortion threats.

Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both?
Both, if they use them.

What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks?
Real time alerts and “Do not spend” feature.

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#272

1. What is the goal of a dusting attack?
To break the privacy of cryptocurrency users by sending tiny amounts of coins/tokens to their wallets.

2. If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk?
If the victim moves the funds received the attackers who sent them the funds can associate them with multiple wallets and so track them down performing a combined analysis of all the different addresses which received funds sent by the attackers and moved them and deanonymize the victim.

3. Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both?
Both as when the victim makes transactions with the inputs received all those can be linked together when they use them for new transactions.

4. What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks?
A real-time alert for dust tracking and a “Do Not Spend” feature that lets users mark suspicious funds, so these are not included in future transactions.

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#273

The link to that page is currently broken.

#274

Hi, you can use the link in the forum post (https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-a-dusting-attack), I have let the team know to update this on academy website. :slight_smile:

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#275

Will change the link of the lesson to the one you mention my friend, thank you very much for it! :muscle:

Carlos Z

#276
  1. What is the goal of a dusting attack? Malicious parties send small amounts of crypto to the personal wallets of other people in an attempt to learn the identity of the victim.
  2. If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk? If the dentity of the victim is determined, the malicious parties can exhort the victim.
  3. Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both? Yes, for both - when the owner of the wallets use the funds for a future transaction.
  4. What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks? The Samourai Wallet added a ‘DO NOT SPEND’ feature that allows users to mark suspicious received funds and not use them in a future transaction.
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#277

1.) The goal of a dusting attack is to send small amounts of a certain cryptocurrency to many different addresses, then perform a combined analysis of those addresses in an attempt to identify which ones belong to the same crypto wallet.
2.) If a dusting attack is successful, the attacker will use knowledge against their victim; they no longer have privacy and are at risk of phishing attacks or cyber-extortion threats. These victims crypto/investments can also be stolen as well.
3.) Dusting attacks work for both Type-1 HD and Type-2 deterministic wallets. The dust is picked up by the malware with every transaction, and it can analyze a bunch of different addresses to provide a link to a specific user even if they are newly generated.
4.) Real-time dust alerts and a “Do Not Spend” feature (lets users mark suspicious funds) were implemented on the new Samourai Wallet to protect against dusting attacks.

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#278

1. What is the goal of a dusting attack?
Send small amount of cryptocurrency to a victim wallet address and the next step of a dusting attack involves a combined analysis of those addresses in an attempt to identify which ones belong to the same crypto wallet.
2. If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk?
Personal information of victim, wallet balances
3. Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both?
No, because when a user spends funds there is (usually) no way to prevent it from using those dust funds. Some wallets (see Samourai wallet) allow to freeze those funds
4. What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks?
The Samourai Wallet team implemented a real-time alert for dust tracking as well as a “Do Not Spend” feature that lets users mark suspicious funds, so these are not included in future transactions.

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#279
  1. What is the goal of a dusting attack? : Phishing small amounts of crypto from your
    wallet.
  2. If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk?: By moving funds from wallet.
  3. Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both? Yes…
  4. What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks? : By implementing “Do Not Spend” to mark suspicious TX,s.
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#280

:one: What is the goal of a dusting attack?

The goal of a dusting attack is to deanonymize users on a blockchain. In doing this, they

:two: If a dusting attack is successful, how is the victim at risk?

If the attacker of a dusting attack is successful, they now have some of the users identity and thi data can be used to target attacks towards them like phishing, or more advanced cyber threats.

:three: Do dusting attacks work for type-1 HD wallets, type-2, or both?

By changing your receiving address after every transaction, you may escape the threat of a dusting attack. However, if not - then dusting attacks will work for type-1 HD wallets and type-2.

:four: What features did Samourai Wallet add to protect against dusting attacks?

Samourai Wallet added a few features to their wallets - such as notifications of when they were potential victims of dusting attempts.
They also added a DO NOT SPEND feature which allowed users to label a certain transaction so it would not be used in future transactions.

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#281

  1. A dusting attack refers to a relatively new kind of malicious activity where hackers and scammers try and break the privacy of bitcoin and cryptocurrency users by sending tiny amounts of coins to their wallets. The transactional activity of these wallets is then tracked down by the attackers, who perform a combined analysis of different addresses to deanonymize the person or company behind each wallet.

  2. The information gathered through dusting attacks can be used for further phishing attacks or cyber-extortion threats.

  3. I believe it works with both if the “dust” is spent, as it links the addresses.

  4. The Samourai Wallet team implemented a real-time alert for dust tracking as well as a “Do Not Spend” feature that lets users mark suspicious funds, so these are not included in future transactions.

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