Ledger Reveals Devastating Smartphone Chip Vulnerability That Hackers Can Exploit
A shocking discovery by Ledger‘s security research team has exposed a smartphone chip vulnerability that cannot be repaired, potentially leaving millions of devices—and the crypto wallets stored on them—wide open to attack.
According to Ledger’s investigation, the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (MT6878) chip contains a flaw so severe that attackers can break through its security defenses and gain absolute control over a device. Once inside, hackers can steal sensitive data—most critically, the private keys that secure a user’s cryptocurrency assets.
Ledger’s engineers, Charles Christen and Léo Benito, outlined how they pulled off the attack:
using precisely timed electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) pulses during the chip’s early boot sequence, they were able to override its security and fully compromise the system.
“There is simply no way to safely store and use one’s private keys on those devices,” the researchers warned.
Smartphone Chip Vulnerability Is Hard-Wired and Impossible to Patch
The most alarming part? This flaw cannot be fixed—ever.
Ledger explains that the vulnerability is embedded directly into the chip’s silicon architecture, not its software. That means:
- No update can fix it
- No patch can prevent it
- Every device using this chip stays permanently exposed
Even though the attack’s success rate is only 0.1%–1% per attempt, the researchers note that it can be repeated rapidly—once per second—making a successful breach just a matter of minutes.
“We simply reboot the device, inject the fault, and retry until it works,” Ledger said, highlighting how trivial repeated attempts are.
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MediaTek Responds, Says Chip Was Never Designed for Financial Security
MediaTek responded to Ledger’s disclosure by stating that the Dimensity 7300 was never intended to defend against such advanced hardware attacks.
The company emphasized that the chip was built for consumer electronics, not high-security environments like banking hardware or dedicated crypto wallets.
“The MT6878 chipset is designed for consumer products, not applications such as finance or hardware security modules,” MediaTek said.
“It is not specifically hardened against EMFI physical attacks.”
In short, according to MediaTek, users expecting hardware-wallet levels of protection from a smartphone chip are using it outside its intended security profile.
Smartphone Chip Vulnerability Timeline and Vendor Notification
Ledger’s team began probing the issue in February, and by early May, they had fully demonstrated the exploit. They immediately informed MediaTek, who then notified all device manufacturers using the affected chipset.
The crypto community now faces a harsh reality:
mobile devices running this chip cannot be trusted for storing private keys, no matter what software protections are in place.
What This Smartphone Chip Vulnerability Means for Crypto Users
For anyone storing wallets or private keys on a smartphone powered by the Dimensity 7300, Ledger’s message is clear and urgent:
Stop doing it now.
This unfixable flaw gives attackers—especially those with physical access—a direct path to extract private keys and drain wallets. Hardware wallets, which are specifically designed to withstand EMFI and other physical attacks, remain the only safe solution.
Here are verified hardware wallet resources:
- Ledger: https://www.ledger.com/
- Trezor: https://trezor.io/
- Keystone: https://keystonewallet.io/
