Trezor Bridge — The Secure Gateway to Your Hardware Wallet

Trezor Bridge is the trusted, secure gateway that connects desktop and web applications to your Trezor hardware device. Trezor Bridge handles device discovery, transport management, and secure message forwarding so applications can request signatures, perform account discovery, and verify device attestation — all while keeping private keys inside the hardware wallet.

Overview — why Trezor Bridge matters

Trezor Bridge is focused on one mission: provide a secure gateway between modern applications and the hardware wallet. Without a robust gateway, apps must re-implement transport logic and risk subtle security pitfalls. Trezor Bridge centralizes those responsibilities — transport isolation, origin verification, and message integrity — so integrators can focus on building great experiences. Use Trezor Bridge to enable hardware-backed signing, multi-account discovery, address verification and secure attestation checks from your app.

How Trezor Bridge works — a high-level flow

  1. Device discovery: Trezor Bridge enumerates connected Trezor devices and exposes a secure channel to authorized origins.
  2. Transport abstraction: WebUSB, WebHID or native connectors are normalized by Trezor Bridge so applications use a uniform API.
  3. Request forwarding: Applications send structured requests (e.g., sign transaction, get address) to Trezor Bridge which forwards them to the device.
  4. User confirmation: The Trezor device displays transaction details and requires the user to confirm before returning a signature.
  5. Response handling: Trezor Bridge returns signed payloads or status codes to the application. The app verifies signatures and proceeds to broadcast or store them as needed.

Example — request a signature (pseudo)

// Pseudo-code (JS)
const bridge = await TrezorBridge.connect();
const signResponse = await bridge.signTransaction({ network: 'bitcoin', tx: myTx });
if (signResponse.error) { console.error(signResponse.error); } else { console.log('Signed raw:', signResponse.signed); }

Developer tips — integrating with Trezor Bridge

When integrating Trezor Bridge into your application, follow these practical guidelines to keep integrations safe and reliable:

  • Validate origins: Ensure you only accept connections from trusted application origins — Trezor Bridge offers origin checks to reduce misuse.
  • Use the emulator for tests: Use the official emulator and sandbox environment to test discovery and signing flows in CI without physical devices.
  • Design clear UX: Surface the minimum required transaction details for the user, and encourage on-device verification of addresses and amounts.
  • Implement retries and disconnect handling: Handle device disconnects gracefully and provide clear remediation steps in your UI.
  • Monitor and log safely: Log events for debugging while ensuring sensitive material (like full private keys or raw seeds) is never logged or transmitted.

Official SDKs simplify many of these tasks — use them to reduce implementation complexity and avoid repeating anti-patterns that can weaken security.

Security model — keeping keys on-device

The fundamental security guarantee of Trezor Bridge is that private keys remain on the Trezor hardware device. Trezor Bridge does not export or persist private keys. Signing operations are performed on-device after user confirmation. Combine Trezor Bridge with device attestation and firmware checks to reduce supply-chain risks and detect tampering. Use multi-approval policies at the application layer for high-value actions and require device attestation where appropriate.

Practical checklist

  • Always require user confirmation on the device for signing operations.
  • Check device attestation before trusting signatures in sensitive workflows.
  • Keep transports up to date and follow the Bridge release notes for security updates.

Operational & indexing tips

To help search engines like Bing discover and index your Trezor Bridge documentation pages quickly, follow SEO best practices: use semantic headings with target keywords (e.g., “Trezor Bridge secure gateway”), include JSON-LD schema (FAQ, WebSite), publish an XML sitemap and list it in robots.txt, use HTTPS, and keep mobile-friendly responsive layouts. These actions improve discoverability but do not guarantee instant indexing — search engines control crawl schedules.