Wallet encryption should warn about keypool flush #1884

sipa commented at 9:24 PM on September 28, 2012: member

I've seen two reports now (maybe from the same user) on IRC of someone who probably had a wallet backup, encrypted it, and never did 100 transactions - assuming their wallet was still backed up.

I think we should show a clear notice in the GUI that you need a new backup after encryption.

vladgiurgiubv commented at 9:30 PM on September 28, 2012: none

I have lost 4.5 BTC this way. The keypool was flushed when I encrypted my wallet and lost the privkey to the adress with those btc.

gmaxwell commented at 9:49 PM on September 28, 2012: contributor

@vladgiurgiubv Just to clarify what Sipa wrote: It still remembers the old keypool keys, but it makes new ones.. so if you don't back up right after encrypting you are exposed.

vladgiurgiubv commented at 10:01 PM on September 28, 2012: none

@gmaxwell I did back up after encrypting and I still lost them. I made 100 new adresses and that still didn't show up. Should I do more?

gmaxwell commented at 10:13 PM on September 28, 2012: contributor

@vladgiurgiubv making addresses isn't how you see if there there.. just startup with the restored wallet put in the app data directory and see if if the transactions show up after the blockchain is finished synchronizing.

vladgiurgiubv commented at 10:15 PM on September 28, 2012: none

@gmaxwell I did this and didn't get the 4.5 BTC

gmaxwell commented at 10:18 PM on September 28, 2012: contributor

How many times transactions do you think you made after the backup? how many times did you hit get new address? did you see any of your transactions show up?

vladgiurgiubv commented at 10:27 PM on September 28, 2012: none

@gmaxwell I didn't make many transactions after the backup, after the backup i hit 2 times new adress...some of the transactions are showing up

gmaxwell commented at 1:08 AM on September 29, 2012: contributor

@vladgiurgiubv I'd be willing to take a look at it, if it's encrypted with wallet encryption and a strong passphrase, encrypt it up with gpg and send it to me (email address and key on the bitcoin.org site). What you're describing doesn't sound possible... by looking at it I might be able to figure out something useful (either what behavior in bitcoin caused your loss, or figuring out where the coins went). Though doing this would deanonymize you to me.

vladgiurgiubv commented at 6:33 AM on September 29, 2012: none

@gmaxwell I've sent you an email. :) Thank you very much for trying!

runeksvendsen commented at 9:42 AM on September 30, 2012: contributor

A simple fix is in this pull request: #1890

vladgiurgiubv commented at 10:29 AM on September 30, 2012: none

@runeksvendsen So what can I do now?... The fix you sent is just for the warning, isn't it?

runeksvendsen commented at 11:45 AM on September 30, 2012: contributor

Yes. It will only prevent future issues with people not backing up their new encrypted wallet. I can't help you with your issue.

Diapolo commented at 7:34 PM on October 7, 2012: none

@sipa You can close this as we now have warnings in the GUI and when using the RPC-command.

sipa commented at 7:44 PM on October 7, 2012: member

Fixed by #1890.

sipa closed this on Oct 7, 2012

KolbyML referenced this in commit ee1be563a2 on Dec 5, 2020

MarcoFalke locked this on Sep 8, 2021