MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Boot-ROM Flaw Raises Red Flags for Crypto Security

Ledger Researchers Detail Unfixable Hardware Weakness Enabling Full Device Takeover

TL;DR

• Ledger’s Donjon lab confirmed an unpatchable boot-ROM flaw in the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (MT6878) chip, allowing full device takeover via electromagnetic fault injection.
• Smartphones built on this SoC — including the crypto-focused Solana Seeker — are permanently vulnerable, exposing private keys stored in mobile wallets.
• The flaw sits in immutable silicon, meaning no update, patch, or vendor fix can secure affected devices.

A fresh disclosure from Ledger’s Donjon research unit has placed a spotlight on a hardware-level security failure inside the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (MT6878) smartphone chipset, a component used in several mainstream Android devices — including the Solana Seeker, a Web3-focused smartphone marketed directly to crypto users. 

The report, released on December 4, 2025, details how the chip’s boot ROM, the immutable first stage of its startup sequence, can be destabilized using precisely timed electromagnetic fault-injection pulses. Ledger’s engineers describe the issue as hard-coded into the chip’s silicon, a flaw no firmware patch or vendor update can ever repair. Once the fault window is calibrated, pulses can be fired once per second, and although the per-attempt success rate ranges from just 0.1% to 1%, repeated execution enables a full compromise in minutes. The attack elevates privileges all the way to EL3, ARM’s highest authority level, effectively handing an attacker complete control of the smartphone.

The inclusion of the MT6878 in the Solana Seeker significantly raises the stakes. That device was built as a Web3-native smartphone, positioned as a convenient self-custody tool for Solana users, yet the Donjon findings show its core chipset can be forced to bypass all security boundaries at boot, exposing anything stored on the device — including private keys. 

Ledger security engineers Charles Christen and Léo Benito said the compromise covers everything from unsuspecting users installing malicious apps to well-resourced actors deploying remote zero-click attacks. Their assessment leaves little room for interpretation: “There is simply no way to safely store and use one’s private keys on those devices,” a line that hits directly at the promise of mobile-first crypto custody. Because a boot-ROM takeover precedes and defeats secure boot, sandboxing, encrypted storage, and OS-level protections, no application-layer mitigation can shield a wallet running on this silicon.

Ledger’s internal timeline shows researchers began probing the chipset in February 2025 and identified the vulnerability in the first days of May before privately disclosing it to MediaTek. Vendors using the SoC were notified shortly after. 

MediaTek responded by stating that EMFI-based attacks fall outside the intended threat model for the MT6878, describing the Dimensity 7300 as a consumer-grade smartphone chip rather than a security-hardened module built for financial operations or hardware-security-module-level protection. That stance underscores an increasingly sharp divide between general-purpose mobile silicon and the rising security expectations of crypto users, especially as digital asset theft continues climbing — more than $2.17 billion stolen across the ecosystem in 2025 alone, already surpassing the prior year’s total.

The hardware nature of the flaw makes the risk unavoidable. Any phone already shipped with the Dimensity 7300 carries the vulnerability permanently, meaning Solana Seeker owners and users of other affected models cannot rely on updates, patches, or factory resets to restore security. 

A compromised boot ROM turns a smartphone into an unreliable environment for non-custodial wallets, regardless of the presence of encrypted storage or secure-boot chains. Specialists in crypto security point out that only dedicated secure elements — chips specifically engineered to resist physical and side-channel attacks — offer meaningful protection against adversaries capable of manipulating timing, voltage, or electromagnetic fields. Software wallets operating solely on consumer-grade SoCs were never built to withstand that tier of threat.

The implications ripple outward. Developers behind mobile wallets may need to implement warnings or usage restrictions for devices running the MT6878, while crypto users treating smartphones as primary custody devices face a reevaluation of their assumptions around threat exposure. For Web3-centric hardware, the disclosure cuts particularly deep: a device promoted for its crypto utility now faces a structural, permanent vulnerability rooted at the boot-ROM level. 

As hardware attacks become more accessible and the incentives to breach mobile wallets continue to rise, the Donjon findings draw a hard line between consumer smartphones and the specialized chip architectures required to protect financial assets from adversaries willing to attack a device all the way down to the electromagnetic behavior of its silicon.

The news came as Solana Mobile announced that its native token, SKR, will launch in January 2026, with a total supply of 10 billion tokens. At launch, 30% will be allocated for airdrop, targeting active users and builders in the ecosystem. Co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko emphasized the decade-long effort to build this ecosystem. The SKR token is integral to governance and incentives within the Solana Mobile ecosystem, which includes the recently launched Solana Seeker smartphone. This Android-based device features blockchain capabilities like Seed Vault key storage and a Solana dApp Store, enhancing user experience and engagement with decentralized applications.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.