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Teardown · Trezor Safe 5 · 2026

Trezor Safe 5 Implant 3D Teardown

The Safe 5 taken apart from the front, layer by layer. The stock main board, display flex and chip positions follow Trezor’s published board views; the reported implant sits between the main board and the screen, with a cellular module and an antenna. Trezor does not have the device yet, so the implant’s size, position and wiring are schematic.

Schematic model: board outline and chip positions from Trezor’s board views, rev. G; case and display module are schematic. No photo of the implant is public; dashed lines mean its size, position and wiring are unknown.

Drag to rotate; pinch or scroll to zoom. Switch versions below to compare the stock device with the reported implant.

  • Reported implant (not verified by Trezor)
  • MCU → display data
  • Stock parts

From the screen to the attacker: five steps

  1. 1 · Generate

    During setup, the Safe 5 generates the words of the wallet backup. They are shown only on the device’s own screen and never pass through a computer or phone.

  2. 2 · Display

    The STM32U585 MCU sends the picture to the 240×240 colour display over a 9-bit parallel bus on a 24-pin flex. The OPTIGA Trust M secure element sits on a separate I2C bus and never touches the display.

  3. 3 · Tap

    The report says an extra board between the main board and the screen reads what the screen shows. How it connects to the display signals Trezor has not said and has not verified.

  4. 4 · Decode

    240×240 pixels at 16 bits or more each: one frame is at least about 113 KB. Which chip the implant uses has not been published.

  5. 5 · Send

    A cellular module and an antenna send the content out. The Safe 5 has no battery, so the implant only has power while USB is plugged in, which matches Trezor’s “whenever the device is plugged in”.

How it differs from the Ledger implants

Ledger devices sold by the same reseller, CryptoBilis, were confirmed by Ledger’s Donjon team on 10/13 to carry implants that read the screen, decode the recovery-phrase screen and send it over LTE with a pre-provisioned eSIM, without touching the secure element or Ledger OS. Trezor says the reported board “appears to operate similarly” to those, but also says it will not draw comparisons while the investigation runs.

The hardware differs in two ways. First, the Ledger Flex screen is driven directly by its secure element, while the Safe 5 screen is driven by the MCU over a 9-bit parallel bus on a 24-pin flex. Second, both Ledgers have batteries the implants can share, and the Flex version even swapped in a smaller one to make room; the Safe 5 has no battery at all, so an implant can only run on USB power.

What Trezor says, and what buyers should do

On 10/9 Trezor told CryptoBilis to stop selling Trezor devices and removed it from its reseller list. On 10/12 Trezor still said it had no reports of tampering and no sign that Trezor devices were affected; the four CryptoBilis units sent in for inspection (a Safe 7, two Safe 5s and a Safe 3) were clean. After this report arrived on 10/28, Trezor changed course on 10/30 and treated it as credible. As of the 10/30 notice, no CryptoBilis buyer had reported stolen funds to Trezor.

Trezor’s advice:

  • Scope: every Trezor model bought from CryptoBilis since March 2026, including its Tokopedia store and shops it supplied, not only the Safe 5.
  • Move funds: create a new wallet backup on a device not bought through CryptoBilis and move the funds there. Typing the old words into another device does not help.
  • Not set up yet: do not set it up.
  • Do not check it yourself: do not open it, and weighing is not reliable. Contact Trezor support for a replacement or a voucher.

Every mass-produced product should be sampled

Trezor’s start-up check verifies that the device and its firmware are genuine; a board that only reads the screen and leaves the firmware alone is outside what it checks, and a Trezor spokesperson acknowledged that seals and packaging alone are not enough. The modification happened after the factory, so sampling has to reach the sales channels: buy units back as an ordinary customer from each channel and take them apart.

Given how the Safe 5 is built, a sampling check would see the following:

  • X-ray: an extra board with an antenna between the main board and the screen shows up against a stock sample without opening the case.
  • USB current: with no battery, every part runs on USB power, so an added cellular module changes the current the device draws when plugged in.
  • Display flex: the stock display plugs straight into the main board with one 24-pin, 0.4 mm flex; anything in between is a modification.
  • Weight: the reporter grew suspicious because the weight felt wrong, but Trezor says weighing is not a reliable method for ordinary users.

Compare: the Ledger implants

Special thanks

No researcher has published a teardown this time; the stock parts can be drawn accurately because Trezor publishes its hardware design.

Official notes and coverage