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Topic
Board Wallet software
Re: 24 word seed question : is splitting it in half dangerous?
by
o_e_l_e_o
on 07/03/2021, 19:13:26 UTC
The chances that hackers can brute force the whole seed phrase from just twelve seed phrase is possible with powerful computional algorithmic tools, very possible tools like btcrecover can be able to do it with high computational power.
No, it isn't.

A 24 word BIP39 phrase has 256 bits of entropy, with 8 bits of checksum. Depending on which 12 words the attacker knows, then, the remaining 12 words have either 120 bits or 128 bits of entropy. Both are still far outwith the realms of possibilities, with the time taken to brute force measured in billions of years even with huge amounts of cloud computing dedicated to the task.

If we are talking about a 15 or 18 word BIP39 phrase on the other hand, then the remaining entropy in those cases ranges from 28 bits to 66 bits, which is somewhere in the range of "very easy" to "possible in a few weeks/months", depending on the computing power involved.

Yes, brute forcing 12 words is exponentially easier than brute forcing 24, but it is still impossible for the time being.