Trezor confirms malicious implants in three Safe 5 wallets, releases fix

On Nov. 12, 2026, Trezor said it found malicious hardware implants inside three Safe 5 wallets sold through Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis. The implants capture recovery phrases and send them to attackers over cellular networks.

CryptoBilis customers bought the three affected devices from Aug. 20 to Sept. 23, 2026, purchasing them either directly from the reseller or through its Tokopedia and Shopee marketplace stores. Trezor took apart one affected wallet in its laboratory and identified the other two from photos sent in by their owners.

In total, Trezor examined 48 devices and found implants in just three of them. After Trezor’s October warning, 48 CryptoBilis customers reached out, and the company is checking their devices in its laboratory or from internal-component photographs. The company has not said how many of those 48 devices it has checked so far.

According to Trezor, no buyer has reported losing money through the affected Safe 5 wallets. The company also said it found no implants in devices sold through other resellers and no tampering in other Trezor models. The implant consists of an extra circuit board with a cellular module and antenna, installed between the Safe 5’s main board and its screen.

The device reads what appears on the screen, including recovery words shown during wallet creation or restoration and passphrases displayed on the screen. Trezor said recovering a recovery phrase lets a hacker access assets from another device without needing the victim’s physical wallet. The implant encrypts captured data and sends it over a mobile network to an attacker-controlled server, repeating transfer attempts until a connection succeeds.

The hidden board leaves the wallet’s firmware and Secure Element untouched, Trezor said, describing the Secure Element as a dedicated security chip, and it does not directly alter the operating system. Because the malicious boards sit outside the firmware, Trezor said conventional software integrity checks might not reveal the implants. The hostile hardware may still be physically present on devices after installing the firmware update.

On Nov. 11, 2026, Trezor released firmware version 2.13.1. The update stops the identified implants from capturing information on devices that run it, but cannot protect recovery phrases that attackers already captured before installation. The company issued version 2.13.1 for the Safe 7, Safe 5, Safe 3 and Model T.

Trezor said the update “stops the implants we’ve found from capturing anything on devices that run it,” and that “the update can’t protect a wallet backup that was captured before it.” Trezor said it will withhold technical details that might assist attackers or endanger customers.

Trezor told anyone who bought a Trezor from CryptoBilis from March 2026 onward to move funds to a fresh wallet with a new recovery phrase. The company said it will replace any Trezor wallet acquired from CryptoBilis from March 2026 onward, even if the unit has not been confirmed compromised. Every model purchased from CryptoBilis starting in March 2026 qualifies for a replacement.

Owners should keep their CryptoBilis device and reach out to Trezor Support, Trezor said, and the company will never ask for a recovery phrase. The company tells owners of uninitialized devices not to set them up or enter existing recovery details. Restoring an old recovery phrase on another device does not remove the risk if attackers already obtained it.

When shipping restrictions apply, Trezor might send a different model, refund the price difference, deliver to another country, or issue a full refund. Trezor said affected buyers may receive a new device or a voucher. Trezor cautions that fraudsters could impersonate the company to offer replacements or refunds.

The company reduced its global reseller network by about 80% and added stricter supply-chain security requirements for remaining partners covering how partners source, store, and access devices. “We have cut our reseller network by about 80%,” Trezor said. Trezor first announced the reseller reduction on Oct. 13, 2026, in a post on X, after reports of compromised Ledger wallets sold through CryptoBilis and before it learned of implants in its own devices. Dropped resellers were trustworthy but did not meet the new requirements; they would receive no new stock, could sell existing stock until Jan. 1, 2027, and then Trezor removes them from the authorized sellers list.

On Oct. 9, 2026, Trezor dropped CryptoBilis as a reseller, the same day Ledger began investigating fund losses among the reseller’s customers. Ledger later confirmed an unauthorized implant in a wallet sold by CryptoBilis and said attackers drained wallets in a single coordinated operation; on-chain researchers put Ledger losses at more than $93 million. Owners of Ledger wallets in Southeast Asia began reporting drained balances on Oct. 9, 2026.

Ledger’s incident statement describes attackers who fitted hidden components into genuine Ledger devices to capture recovery phrases during setup before draining the wallets. According to Trezor, attackers in the Ledger case bought genuine devices, modified them, and resold them through Southeast Asian resellers. Ledger is based in Paris. Mark Karpelès, the former CEO of Mt. Gox, purchased a compromised Ledger device in Malaysia and discovered a comparable board beneath its screen.

Trezor said the implants found in its wallets resemble those found in Ledger devices also distributed by CryptoBilis, though the company has not identified who fitted them or where in the supply chain it happened. Mark Karpelès described the implant this way: “The implant just monitors what’s shown on the screen, will take note of the seed as it’s shown to you, then transmit it.”

A customer in Indonesia bought a Trezor Safe 5 from CryptoBilis’ Tokopedia store in August and filed a report about a suspicious component through Trezor’s responsible disclosure program on Oct. 28, 2026. Trezor issued a public warning about the suspected implant on Oct. 30, 2026, before its laboratory had examined the device. Trezor said it had not received the device as of its warning and relied on the customer’s account and a video interview instead. Trezor said delaying a warning until lab confirmation would leave buyers at risk in the meantime.

Before discovering the implant, the Indonesian buyer moved his cryptocurrency out of the wallet. The customer told Trezor the board sends data through a mobile connection when the wallet connects to power. The buyer noticed a weight difference, though Trezor said small differences can have other causes and no dependable self-inspection method exists.

Trezor said its investigation is continuing and that it plans to publish an update if it finds an implant beyond CryptoBilis wallets or the Safe 5, gets a report of funds lost because of the implants, or issues new safeguards. Trezor said the assessment of its investigation remains provisional. Trezor said it would not compare the two cases further and has not identified the attacker.

Trezor advises buying through its own website to lower the chance of pre-delivery tampering. Trezor encouraged buyers unsure of their device’s origin to verify it before use. Trezor wallets are self-custodial, so the company cannot see anyone’s balance.

The Czech company Trezor, part of SatoshiLabs Group, has manufactured hardware wallets since 2014, and its current lineup includes the Safe 3, Safe 5 and Safe 7. Trezor is cooperating with SEAL 911, run by the Security Alliance as an emergency service for cryptocurrency incidents, and has promised a reward to the customer who first reported the implant.